Let Social Media Inspire You
Today’s writing prompt for the Wordpress Blogging University “Every Day Inspiration” challenge is to “let social media inspire you” – to go look at social media, and use it to inspire a few well put together words.
Here’s the thing – I decided some time ago that social media is not social – so perhaps my inspiration might not be to lift something I have seen shared, but to rail against the sort of sharing that typically goes on within the Facebook walled garden, or the Tumblr hall of mirrors.
At some point over the last several years I started to form the opinion that the way most people take part in the social internet is incredibly unhealthy. It is often used as a highlight reel – a marketing machine to advertise the best parts of people’s lives – the part they want to show off. Photos of expensive holidays, exclusive restaurants, haircuts, makeup, nails, cars, houses – privilege run riot. The problem of course is that life isnot a highlight reel. I would far rather read honest appraisals of the challenges people are facing, than “LOOK AT MY NEW THING” (that you don’t have), or “LOOK WHERE WE ARE” (that you are not).
I guess at some point in your life you start making decisions about who you are willing to expend time and effort on – who you will humor, and who you won’t worry quite so much about hurting. It feels horrible to write down, but I’ve stopped worrying almost entirely about the sort of people that share what they have, or where they have been.