The Modern Curse
Social media is the modern curse. Writers and creatives are being put out of business because a billionaire is too lazy to write his own tweets.
Yep, it’s depressing but it seems something impossible to get away from. A trend now for those who have had enough of being glued to their phones 247 in an endless doom scroll, is to get a remnant phone from the noughties with no internet access.
Sounds great but is going cold turkey really an option? I’ve done no internet before, but it’s mostly been for a weekend camping in the woods when I’m “getting back to nature”. The thought of having no phone and no access to the internet for any extended period is enough to bring on a panic attack. Nowadays, it’s not so much an “if a tree falls in a forest but no one hears it” problem but more if there is no photo to post on Instagram, did it even happen? Does it really exist?
It’s sad. We are constantly told we must post regularly, daily even, to get our followers to connect with us to survive as a business, to stay current. So, we sacrifice ourselves, thinking of content, and creating content instead of doing what we are truly passionate about. Let’s face it, a large percentage of posts are the internet equivalent of junk mail. And just because they are not in paper form doesn’t mean it is not damaging our environment. So why do we keep doing it?
I too am guilty, but not out of choice. When trying to get work published, I have been asked by publishers about my social media following. They asked me “how will you help market the book?” They needed evidence. Back then, I had only just relented from being a technology dinosaur and opened an Insta account, so you can imagine how convincing it was to have ten followers consisting of mostly bots. To be able to continue what I want to do and have a career in the arts, I seem required to become a slave of social media. What other way is there of promoting myself in the same way? I need to film myself drawing, or reciting poetry while using my feminine wiles to attract more followers. Social media is now a portfolio, a business card, it represents you. You are a brand.
We have all become products. If this wasn’t bad enough having ADHD adds to the confusion. I have no idea what my brand is. My interests change so much that those who have chosen to follow me because of my interest in street art will rarely overlap with followers attracted by my new interest in let’s say gardening or whatever it is in three months’ time. I am constantly redesigning myself; I am a human chameleon. I can’t be reduced to my pins, squares, posts, and reels on a page followed by who knows what sending me spam messages and neither should you.
I would love for everyone to be able to go back to just being. Create what you want to create because it makes you happy, even if no one gets to see it, read it, or buy it. There are not enough tortured artists, hermits, and crazy cat ladies in the world in my opinion. Just taking photos to keep a memory would be nice too. Even if no one ever sees it.
We used to use them for photo albums and cart them around with us from house to house, keeping them in a box in the loft collecting dust- and they were of special occasions. I doubt you would know what breakfast looked like in the nineties unless it was your eighteenth birthday breakfast or you had a scrupulous grandpa that took photos of everything but that was rare, his photo collection mostly consisted of trains, roses from the garden and bird pictures.
You were very lucky if someone was invested enough in you to ask to see your photos. To tell you you were cute even when you weren’t, (you were awkward, everyone was). Or when a parent embarrassingly got them out to show potential partners, as you sat mortified wishing you had burnt all evidence of your past and all the baths you had taken.
Please let’s all go back. I want to experience just for the experience, to just BE again. I really hope it’s possible, won’t you join me? Let’s end this curse of social media!
