There have been far too many moments I go on a social media platform with the purpose of making my own post, and end up staying on the platform afterwards. I get sucked into the rabbit hole and the platform that was meant to boost my platform ends up being a drain on my time, ultimately killing my productivity. I started Instagram with noble intentions of getting more followers for my Twitter and Facebook, and more viewers for my blog. The ultimate goal was to get more people reading my blog, so that I could create a following for my books.
As I described in a previous post, I quit Instagram because it was just a big distraction. I would post 3+ times a day, watching the likes and followers pour in. Then I would realize no one liking or commenting was actually checking out my site. Then I realized I was becoming enslaved to the platform. A weekend away from it meant followers with ADD would unfollow. I spent more and more time posting, but I also spent more time on the explore page. I tried to avoid the instamodels and cat videos, but some of those crept through. Even when I focused on following comic book artists and writers, I would still spend more time on the platform than I originally intended. My deficient attention span (which I am working on) would lead me down the rabbit hole, exploring content that ultimately just distracted me from the reason I joined the platform in the first place.
When I have a day off work, I like to start off with something productive. I eat, then I usually write or go to the gym. Then I try to practice guitar for a bit, then job hunt and so on. Social media is a distraction that can get in the way of these other tasks. At the same time, it is something that lends you legitimacy or status if done right. I haven’t been doing right. Distracting myself for minutes at a time, while also losing followers because I’m not posting enough for their liking. When I am working, I like to stay off social media for hours at a time. However, this can lead to a gap in the posts that followers and potential followers crave. As I continue to work on my fifth book, I worry that I’ll have a body of work and no one to share it with. The paltry 125 followers I have on Twitter, could be 50 by the time I’m done the book if I don’t make a conscious effort to post throughout the day. With that said, I’ll take on the challenge and try to contribute more to social media, while doing my best to withdraw from it.