Forward:
I started this idea that I would write articles about being "Anti-Social" on social media, because I've always felt like I could relate to or speak to like-minded people who felt the need to be on social media, but would rather live in reality. Still, as I've written nearly forty of these articles, there's one glaring lesson I've learned about myself, and it's that I'm a cynic. I don't mean to be, I really don't, but if you've read these articles, you've undoubtedly drawn that conclusion. Maybe you haven't, but I certainly have.
I'm not writing these because I want be liked, I'm writing them to be clear with myself first. The result is just collateral.
In the 2001 Film, "Blow," Fred Jung files for bankruptcy at the bank in front of his son, George, and then delivers these reassuring words to him:
"What are we going to do? It'll be all right, George. It always works out. I'm going to find another job. That's just the way it goes sometimes. You're flush, and then you're bust. When you're up, it's never as good as it seems, and when you're down, you never think you're going to be up again. But life goes on. Remember that. Money isn't real, George. It doesn't matter. It only seems like it does."
That lesson from Fred came too late; George already had it in his head that money did matter. Ultimately, George went to prison over his love of money. In the end, the only thing he regretted was what mattered: the relationships he missed out on while locked up.
I'm on social media, but lately, as in for as long as I can remember, I despise it...Yet here I am thinking to myself, why? For the record, the majority of what I do and how I help my clients has everything to do with social media, which poses a follow-up question I should ask myself: "Am I in the wrong career?"
Short answer: It's complicated Long Answer: Also complicated
Maybe you're asking yourself the same questions, or perhaps you're not, or maybe you're wondering, "Why am I reading this?" All of those are fair questions, and worthy of a conversation, no doubt, but rest assured that's not why I'm writing this. I'm writing this as a reminder that social media, like money, doesn't matter; we only think it does because it garners attention.
Several months ago, I wrote and produced a short film called, "The Realest Shit I Ever Wrote," on how we, as in you and I, sitting here on social media don't work for the platform and how they, technically are supposed to be working for us, yet for some reason, have neglected our point of views and have or are actively trying to adopt the point of view of the social media algorithm being pushed on us every time we log in.
Lately, as I contemplate social media and literally my existence on it, I'm now confronting my shifted mentality that, regardless of the algorithm, what Adam Mosseri or any of the so-called guru says, or whoever thinks we need to "do social" according a list of unwritten rules, as if these are the correct way to achieve stardom, are all, in fact, horribly mistaken.
The so-called rules don't exist; they're not written anywhere, and if they are, it's likely the opinion of someone who claims to have figured it out, leaving me standing on the sideline wondering, "What the hell do you think you've figured out, anyway?"
How to outsource all thinking and creativity? Because it appears that way at times.
This mentality that you need to have a hook in everything you share, or at the start of every 90-second or less video, you need to include a riser, you need to comment on several pieces of content before and after you post to create maximum engagement, you need to connect with 25 people a day, you need to double space your sentences, even bullet point your lists, make it easier for your audience to digest, and when it's all said and done top off your content with the most compelling call to action you could ever think of (or that ChatGPT can come up with) to close out your meaningless content. And I use the word "meaningless" because the so-called guru is literally talking about "how to do social media correctly" in their content, as if the platform is paying them to.
Here's a cliche worthy of acceptance to summarize what I just wrote: "Spoiler alert, they're not being paid."
The irony is that when the self-serving experts tell you how to do social media, offering up their rules and advice on what will work for you and what won't, they've never come up with anything original of their own in their lives. That's my very poor assumption, who knows, maybe they have, but I doubt it. As my friend, D A N I E L H A L L would say, these people leading this charge are "The Social Media Mafia," and he's not wrong.
We are a society of entrepreneurs, sales & marketing professionals, videographers, engineers, small business owners, who all have one thing that is clearly not in common with the people barking orders at us...We don't have any need to create content about how to create content because we're too busy creating content about what we do...so please don't offer up advice that you have no idea whether or not your rules will apply to, because you've never actually done it for yourself.
There are no rules...none. There are guidelines, and then there are what has worked for you and you alone, but that's about it. But then again, what has worked or hasn't worked is consistently taken out of context by people who don't know what it is that you are trying to achieve in the first place.
Social media has always been a platform for me to be the light in a very dark place. Initially, I had hoped that by expressing my point of view through my self-titled "Anti Social Social Media Club," articles as an outlier would inspire others to forgo the ideology of "doing social media" the right way at least according to some people whose definition of what is correct has been derived from their own delusion of simply talking about a platform rather than about something real.
The Anti-Social Social Media club was always intended to be the salt that went along with the light.
There are no rules, guys. Just opinions, and since I'm sharing mine, we, or all of us, could benefit more from telling original stories on social media rather than focusing so much on the technicalities of getting our content seen.
Social media isn't real, and in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter, and because of the so-called rules, it only seems like it does.
Over and out,
Derek Laliberte
