Social Media Trap
We all know this trap we are in
I feel stuck.
I know what is good for me and what is good for my business to grow and I'm afraid they are different things. I want to say I have control but is there a way for me to say no? It's like a drug deal happening every day. It must happen if I am going to make money and gain followers. But they say dealers don't participate in their drugs. Is this true? Do those behind this new addiction know how bad it is and sell it to us anyway?
I feel trapped.
We are trapped.
What is this drug you may be wondering? It's not a substance but it's just as addictive. It may even be more addictive. It comes in multiple forms. Photos and videos. Posts and threads. We are all accustomed to its hold on our lives. We want to see how others live and strive to be a photocopy of what we see. We forget about the filters and the masks put on. We think if our lives don't look like blank, then we've failed and are not good enough. We compare someone else's highlight reel to our real life. Social media is not real. It's an enhanced version of someone's life. Don't forget that.
We are trapped.
I want to be free of this. I want to log out and say I'm done. But I want to create. I want others to read my writings. I want to be able to make a living doing what I love. And our world traps us into needing to feed the algorithm or our work will be buried with all the other noise running to the internet. We are chasing a dream but drowning in the noise.
Creatives have lost their freedom to just create. We have sold ourselves as a business and if our art doesn't succeed we are failures as humans. We have attached ourselves so closely to our work there is no healthy separation. We are enslaved to what the world says and fight to be seen.
Our posts get buried by these companies if we are not engaged in their platform. They want to trap people and they do this by using us. We are their product. If we are not consistently adding value to the platform they hide us and forget about us.
We feel lost.
I want to build a community of people who care about one another's work so much that they just want to create together and share work amongst themselves without the need to pay their dues to the algorithm. I love this community on vocal that is being built and I love going and reading your posts as well.
I hope that together we can continue to build up this community and support each other's writings. I would love to read each of your writings! If you've made it this far you should comment a link to your favorite writing you've published and I will go read it and subscribe to you. I want to support your dream as much as you are supporting mine.
My dream is together we can create a community of creatives that do not have to rely of social media for growth and community. I'm not sure what that could look like yet but I would love to try my hardest to make that happen.
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About the Creator
Thomas Terry
Hello, I like using poetry and music to help connect people and find the meaning of life. We all have our own unique stories and I want to share mine to hopefully inspire you to share yours!
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Comments (11)
Amazing story
I agree man
I agree and for what it's worth, despite some bumps along the way, the Vocal community is for me a viable, positive space. I have made some good friends here and appreciate the Vocal admins. team jumping in when we have issues. Congratulations on Top Story!
"If we are not consistently adding value to the platform they hide us and forget about us". How true is that...100%. It is a competition, dog eat dog kind of situation. Those who love it stays, those who want to get rich quick take and then leave. And so it goes. Love this a lot. Congrats on TS.
These are deeply beautiful and relatable sentiments shared here, eloquently and thoughtfully communicated. Thank you for this honest and timely piece, Thomas! I very much relate- hopefully we can all embrace the positive potential of our interconnected age, while learning to grow away from the addiction, comparison, and other unhealthy impacts it can have. Cheers to that, I say! Congrats on a well-deserved top Story! :)
Can anyone tell me, how a story becomes a top story?
Congratulations on top story!!
Congrats on your top story.
Dang, the part about having to appease the algorithm hit close to home for me. Good luck on your goal, by the way!
Stuck, Trap, Lost, some contributing social media elements, to take heed. Love it, thanks for sharing.
this is a wonderful contribution to the conversation surrounding social media. thank you for your insight. i do love the vocal community for the feedback and camaraderie. it's experiencing some growing pains, perhaps, but it's a good place to be. https://vocal.media/pride/accepting-myself-as-a-thirty-three-year-old-elder-queer