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My job is a a Social Media manager, and I hate social media.

What happens when you realise you hate your 'dream career', when you've already committed 5 years to it?

By Jen LeaPublished 4 years ago 8 min read
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My job is a a Social Media manager, and I hate social media.
Photo by Georgia de Lotz on Unsplash

In my opinion, social media is a vapid echo chamber, where people with low-self esteem fish for compliments, molecules of serotonin and brain washed by ‘influencers’, selling them things. The concept of selling people crap, with money they don’t have, to fill a need that isn’t real, to contribute to pollution & landfill is just not something I want to be a part of… So how did I end up working in Marketing & Social Media?

The simple way to explain this, would be that I am a 24 year old white woman who has grown up with the internet. This inbuilt privilege positions me as an ‘expert’, despite not actually using it as much as my peers or to the extent that is expected of a millennial. I studied Graphic Design at Leeds Arts University, at the time it was considered the best design course in the UK by numerous publications, so Graphics was the first stage of progressing into the creative industry. After this, I interned in 'Marketing' in New York City. Don't get me wrong, living in NY was amazing, but the role itself was not. Even as an entry-level intern, the targets and sales culture opened my eyes to the realities of industry, but also the subtle sexisms... for example, women ALWAYS had to wear heels in the office. Even if you didn't have any, they would expect you to go out and buy some to look 'professional'. I didn't last their long, and that's a different story, but this experience led me to desire somewhere 'chill', where I could use creativity, design and less 'salesy' methods to grow my experience within marketing.

My time in NY had already made me slightly pessimistic, not just about social media (you would not believe the amount of 'influencers in the wild' you see there) but mostly about class struggles and capitalism. EVERY. ONE. HAD. AIRPODS... and if you were on the A Train and didn't, girl you would be getting side eye from everyone and their nan. New York is naturally very expensive, so having to purchase $18 cocktail's (thats a standard price in Manhattan) just to post on the gram is not what i'm about. I thought I could block out this internal narrative about Social Media being a ego-driven, vanity pool, but when you don't fully know yourself, how can you be so certain?

By growing up around the internet, Facebook, Instagram, Social Media in general is almost like a second language… we don’t need it to be explained to us like we would POS or SCRUM tactics; this is probably one of the only places the ‘youth voice’ is actually listened to and taken seriously.

Me when anyone asks me anything

As a 'career person', I decided to use this experience to my advantage. ‘Can you use social media’, I replied ‘YES!’, because… I can, right? The thing is, I don’t LIKE using social media, therefore put in very little time, energy and effort into it because I ultimately think it is stupid. This extends to my own socials (I am currently on private with an iPhone avi as my profile pic), but also the brands I was working with. I would do the bare minimum to sneak under the radar without question. This simple ‘YES’ was to build a career, in an industry I actually despised, just because it was the easiest thing to do. In the long run, that ‘yes’ will have caused much more harm than good, with each job grinding down my mental health and slowly my will to live. When you are confronted day in, day out with the reality you are a brainwasher, a wanna-be modern-day Edward Bernays (if you don't know this G then look him up), something as simple as posting an Instagram story can seem like moving mountains. This sounds dramatic, but when the only communication you have in days is with Karens online; and a post you worked tirelessly on with a ‘genius’ campaign idea, only gets 6 likes and doesn’t generate any sales, its hard to not take that personally and call yourself a failure.

This, I won’t lie, is partly true; however to avoid internally gaslighting myself I won’t focus on that too much. Rather, that the role was wrong for me because it did not align with my actual passions. The act of posting, drafting content and engaging with others? No problem! Thinking of the larger implications of what I was doing, and how I was potentially contributing to a class-driven state of capitalism, elitism and lining tory pockets? No thanks.

Things you innately enjoy > Thing society tells you you can do

I wish I could conclude on my journey with some enlightened story of how I ‘found my true passion’ and left the dog-eat-dog world of Troll town, but that penny is still yet to drop unfortunately. I am still working as a Digital Marketing & Social Media consultant, and trying to use the platforms I manage for good... not just selling people things they don't need, with money they don't have, to simply go into landfill. It is social media managers ethical responsibility to be aware of how they are using the platform, and the subconscious negative effects their output may have on audiences.

The idea of prioritising aesthetics over substance is another beef with social media.

One example of this recently, is the performative ally-ism around the Black Lives Matter movement. Posting a black square, not donating any money/signing petitions, even spending the time to educate yourself on internalised racism/homophobia/transphobia/sexism is another example of how brands place emphasis on aesthetic over substance. To me, this is criminal. Imagine having 1.3million followers and not encouraging your followers with a swipe up to sign a petition for Breonna Taylor... BUT, post a cutsie little tile so they look like they're on the right side of history, without any of the receipts to back it up. This is often the fault of higher management don't get me wrong. When the BLM Movement was thrust into the forefront, I reached out with a proposition of how we could educate our mostly white, working-class, football-enthusiast audience on racism, racist micro-aggressions and generally about mass incarceration, white privilege, inherited wealth and the implications for those effected by redlining etc, all in a light hearted, engaging way... but naturally this was shot down as the substance did not fit the aestetics of the brand. It would of been aestetical AF so we can really see through the bs with that one - and sadly, this story of control and mismanaged content often stems from the top, coated by fear. I have realised that people are scared of change, false-perception and risk, wether this be in meetings, on social media or how they use their brand to challenge the status-quo.

via @influencersinthewild

On a lighter note, the act of looking like a reyt knob in public just to get a aesthetic IG picture will be laughable in years to come… or EVEN, the concept of having your friend take it (because everyone with an iphone is basically mario testino), and look like that idiot in public for you just to fill your internal void about them being a good friend, and get a good pic for YOUR gram is a hillarious form of manipulation, and most people do not see it like this. I have friends who are ALL ABOUT THE GRAM. Pop a squat, take that pic, I am here for it don't get me wrong! But, the negative implications of that being your life, your reality and 'the norm' is deeply damaging for all involved due to the level of staged inauthenticity, edited and repackaged as 'authentic content'. There will be one day when we look back and think, wait, was that really me?

The role of a Social Media manager also involves Community Management, this basically involves engaging with people online, liking/commenting on pictures and reposting influencer pictures for traction and clout. By participating in this, I can now see that ‘like for like’ culture, especially on Instagram, is tragic and doesn’t actually mean anything. It is better to have 3 genuine likes from strangers who actually vibe with your stuff, who could be future customers or engage regularly with your content, rather than bots or fake-fans just doing it for their personal numbers to rise. Think about this concept in regards to the economy, all thats going to happen is the cost of goods and services will rise (inflation); and, taking this further, creating these ‘like 4 like’ communities on additional platforms such as Reddit is heightening an undemocratic class divide on a ‘democratic’ social platform. Social media is no longer an escape, it is a reflection of real life with a real hierarchy and a real monetary exploitation going on by the 1%.

By having these small L4L communities, they are lifting each other up (aww how nice), but this is also the basis for capitalism and look how thats going. Where there's a top there must always be a bottom, and this culture has spawned influencer culture, which in tern has contributed to mass purchasing of single-use-items, including beauty & fast fashion and waste which Mother Nature ultimately has to digest, without a love heart emoji floating her ego.

Fashion Landfill - source unknown

In true Carrie Bradshaw style, I couldn’t help but wonder, has the internet fashion culture gone too far with too little consideration for the future? Or are we just living our best lives with no fucks given about tomorrow? Or, is that all just a brainwashing ploy to keep you docile, complacent and chasing the next pay check? Either way, there is no escape. You can only control your space, your little digital community and put out the content that sits comfortably with you ethically.

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  • Solomon Alderson2 years ago

    This was uh... Very insightful. I came across this because I actually searched about not liking social media but having to be on it for the sake of working on it. Ugh. Although, some things you mentioned, I don't relate to, it did feel as though I connected to them.

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