Grime Between the Pinterest-Perfect Social Media Posts
On my first day living in Texas, I've been itching to get back to my blog and begin a slight change in direction of my career. In my 2+ years of experience in the realm of social media, what I enjoyed the most was researching social media to spread the news to others and create video tutorials to instruct business owners how social media can help them do what they do better. So, it only makes sense that I transition from taking on social media on the behalf of other businesses to presenting myself as a social media expert that small businesses can turn to for information.
Today I'd like to touch on a topic that surrounds us every time we get on a social network for personal usage: envy of people's picture-perfect version of their lives. When we scroll through our newsfeeds, we see how other people want us to see them. We don't see the 2 a.m. beings on ice cream after a breakup or all the years of hard work and struggling that a person put into getting that job that appeared to magically fall into their lap. Take a scroll through your own news feed to see if you can even remember your own imperfections in-between the wonderful posts you artfully crafted.
Why would we post these down moments in our life? The highs are so much more exciting to read about and the congratulations are so much more fun to receive. But we have to keep in mind that as perfect as a person may seem, in reality they're no where near it in real life. Whenever you start to envy an impossibly rich socialite, remember that they don't have your wonderful significant other that you do or when you coo at someone's adorable puppy, think about all of the midnight trips to the bathroom and torn belongings that accompany it.
Now keeping all of this in mind is easier said than done when someone you quasi-know realizes your wildest dream, but the key is to imagine the bad that comes with the good. Instead of letting these enviable vacation pictures and dream jobs cause you heartbreak, let them serve as a motivator to you and show you that this kind of reality is possible. Not only is it achievable, you now have a contact, though maybe a somewhat distant one, that you could reach out to to see how you too can have the same feat. Or at the very least, you can read between the lines of their perfect wall posts to see the steps they took to get there.
I'm by no means immune to this kind of envy. Success surrounds me both online and offline. It's my husband's unbelievably great job offer that has brought us to Texas, my mentor and client recently took a trip to Italy where I've wanted to visit for years, my peers are growing up and having kids, working, buying houses and nice cars, while I'm still working to get to that point in my life. I want so badly to be working full time at a position I love, feeling fulfilled.
I know what I want to do with my life and when I see college students and friends change majors and wander around the course catalog that seems like such a feat. I have the motivation that so many others lack. They settle for lackluster jobs that only marginally meet their interests and what they set out to do because it's a full-time job and it's safe. The "everyone's a winner" and "you can be anything you want to be, sweetie" that has encompassed our generation has lowered the bar for success. When someone gets a full-time job, any kind of job, they are greeted online with hundreds of likes and congratulations. At one time this would just be a given and expected of any contributing member of society. Granted, part of it is the economy and over-saturation of college graduates, but part of it resides within each of is. We don't go after our wildest dreams, even when they're plastered in front of us in social media.
But not I. I will strive to be different than these pod-people I'm connected to via social media and let them be motivators that if they can find success and fulfillment, then so can I. Moving to a bigger market is one of the first steps I'm taking outside of my comfort zone in order to achieve the success I so deeply desire. The next is building up my blog to assert my knowledge in social media. Whether that leads to making a career as a blogger, social media expert and instructor, or gaining enough experience for a well-known company to hire me as their social media coordinator, who knows. But for the first time in my life, I don't know what the rest of my life holds and it doesn't scare me at all.
Well, in the spirit of social media honesty, that's a lie; it terrifies me, but I'm using this fear of the unknown inspire me to work harder to achieve that next level of success and security.
Today I'd like to touch on a topic that surrounds us every time we get on a social network for personal usage: envy of people's picture-perfect version of their lives. When we scroll through our newsfeeds, we see how other people want us to see them. We don't see the 2 a.m. beings on ice cream after a breakup or all the years of hard work and struggling that a person put into getting that job that appeared to magically fall into their lap. Take a scroll through your own news feed to see if you can even remember your own imperfections in-between the wonderful posts you artfully crafted.
Now keeping all of this in mind is easier said than done when someone you quasi-know realizes your wildest dream, but the key is to imagine the bad that comes with the good. Instead of letting these enviable vacation pictures and dream jobs cause you heartbreak, let them serve as a motivator to you and show you that this kind of reality is possible. Not only is it achievable, you now have a contact, though maybe a somewhat distant one, that you could reach out to to see how you too can have the same feat. Or at the very least, you can read between the lines of their perfect wall posts to see the steps they took to get there.
I'm by no means immune to this kind of envy. Success surrounds me both online and offline. It's my husband's unbelievably great job offer that has brought us to Texas, my mentor and client recently took a trip to Italy where I've wanted to visit for years, my peers are growing up and having kids, working, buying houses and nice cars, while I'm still working to get to that point in my life. I want so badly to be working full time at a position I love, feeling fulfilled.
I know what I want to do with my life and when I see college students and friends change majors and wander around the course catalog that seems like such a feat. I have the motivation that so many others lack. They settle for lackluster jobs that only marginally meet their interests and what they set out to do because it's a full-time job and it's safe. The "everyone's a winner" and "you can be anything you want to be, sweetie" that has encompassed our generation has lowered the bar for success. When someone gets a full-time job, any kind of job, they are greeted online with hundreds of likes and congratulations. At one time this would just be a given and expected of any contributing member of society. Granted, part of it is the economy and over-saturation of college graduates, but part of it resides within each of is. We don't go after our wildest dreams, even when they're plastered in front of us in social media.
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Well, in the spirit of social media honesty, that's a lie; it terrifies me, but I'm using this fear of the unknown inspire me to work harder to achieve that next level of success and security.
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