The Anti-Social Media

Once again, I’ve been feeling burned out from this blog for a while. Part of it is because I’ve been working on a large number of projects, and my commitments here take up a lot of my time. Other times, it’s just hard to keep up the anger and the frustrations when no real solutions are being proposed to fix Facebook’s privacy issues and to have people stop tweeting about how gross their coworkers are in the bathroom.

I’ve forgotten how to have fun with social media and how to make fun of social media.  When you are buried in articles and people who are obsessed with social media marketing, you forget about how average people use social media to communicate, to inform and complain. It’s not hard to disconnect from humanity when you spend an hour on Tweetdeck looking into the matrix of social media.

So, I’m going to spend more time writing articles that make me laugh and snicker. If you don’t like it, go read some other blog. There are more than enough “experts” for you to follow mindlessly.

Social media is fun. It’s not about connecting to people just so you can sell the latest piece of crap. It’s not about analyzing every minute change and how it will change everything. Get off your computer, enjoy life, and when you get on your computer, enjoy social media.

Social Media wouldn’t exist in the format we imagine it today if it weren’t for the millions of users constantly uploading and updating statuses and other media. According to a study, content creation has recently plateaued.  For as many users as we add, we’re still writing the same amount of tweets about how much we love coffee and bacon.

Does that mean we’re burned out, or have we just run out of creative individuals to update Facebook pages?  If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it before.  It’s easy to burnout on social media.  We can only create so much content.  There are very few of us who can churn out witty tweets and updates every day.  We all have better things to do like watch Hoarders so we feel like our house is much cleaner than it is.

Social Media is like Jareth, David Bowie’s character from the movie Labyrinth.  It wants to rule you.  It wants your thoughts, your ideas, your emotions and your dreams.  But you don’t have to share them all.  It has no power over you, and it’s not nearly as good looking as David Bowie in tights.

Do you have the power, or does social media have the power over you?

A while back, I said I would cut back to blogging four days a week, and then I failed miserably.  I posted more in any one month than I have before.  If content is king, I’m going to be the over-sharing, over-achieving, insane writer keeping things going on this blog, and because of that you all will love me and I’ll be internet famous for twenty minutes and my life will finally be complete.

I could say I suffer for my art, but really, it’s just a blog with funny words and the occasional awkward screenshot from Mashable.  If anything, art suffers because of me.

There are days when I don’t have anything bad or good to say about social media.  Either I’m too tired, too bored, or so frustrated with the same ideas that it seems like it’s not worth blogging. If I do churn out some content, it tends to be rambled, incoherent, and inconsistent at best.

So, when those days come, I try to enjoy life as much as I can.  There’s only so much I can try to influence people before I want to say “Screw you guys, I’m going to eat ice cream.”  Because really, sometimes it’s much more fun to stay away from the computer, read a book, and eat some good ice cream.

I’m amazed you all don’t call me out on horrible content more often.  I encourage you to.  You’re smart, intelligent people who can read and write intelligibly, and your silence is acceptance of horrible content.  Stop being silent.  When content is sloppy, lazy, and complacent, stop reading, and let the writer know why you aren’t reading them anymore.

It seems mean, but some people have no business writing online every day.  It’s time we let them know.

It’s funny how I started the week feeling burned out about blogging and social media.  However, the awkward tweets, the mindless check-ins, the technical nightmare of running a blog really resonated with a lot of readers this week, meaning one thing:

You all are really burned out as well.

The more I think about it though, it doesn’t come as a surprise.  How many tweets can we possibly read in a day?  What do you do with those 200 some articles that come into your RSS reader daily?  How many times will you pull out your phone to check in every time you step into a different building?

We lose a little something every time we spend another minute than necessary in front of our computer screens.  Those 5 minutes checking Twitter 4 times a day add up to 20 minutes, and in three days that’s an hour.  In a couple of months, you will have lost a day of your life to Twitter alone.  Add the time you are waiting to check in on Foursquare, and the time you spend on Facebook and you’re draining years of your life away.

The constant stream of tweets and updates from around the globe create a never ending race to engage and be heard.  Keeping up with it all while trying to do meaningful work and make real connections is insane.  You can’t do it.  The more you try to, the more you struggle and lose that spark of inspiration to create.  It hit me hard this week, and I know it will hit me again.

I’m lucky to have this platform where even as I burn out, I find inspiration and support in my downward spiral.  Many people don’t have those friends and contacts.  They leave these platforms forever.

Burnout will come.  Don’t let it ruin your social media.