Category: Social MediaCategory: Social Media

Putting our best work on platforms we don’t control, or which most of the world won’t see, might not be the best use of our time.

Posts on social media wash away like sand castles. Meanwhile our websites haven’t been updated in months.

And that’s a shame, since I see so much effort that goes into these social media posts.

So many reflections, insights, big ideas, all finely worded and crafted, all just so 3% of our “followers” might see it.

Instead, we could put that work on our websites.

It’s not about “driving eyeballs to our websites,” it’s about having something on our website worth reading. So when someone is interested enough to click, they can actually dig deeper and find out what you’re about.

Sure, that might “only” be a handful of people, but give me two genuinely curious people per day on my website instead of 100 people at the food court looking for chicken nuggets. That’s why we put our best work on our websites. Our thoughts, photos, ideas, videos become a feed on our own websites, in our own ecosystem, with our own branding and colors and vibes.

Yes, you can use platforms to showcase your work, but those feeds will expire one day. You’ll stop updating X, or walk away from LinkedIn, or Instagram will lock you out of your account, or something else beyond your control.

Smartphones ship with a web browsers, not social media apps.

Amelia Hruby, PHD of the Off The Grid podcast is our guest on this week’s Escape Pod Zoom call.

Social media is all smoke and mirrors:

Adam Mosseri (head of Instagram) testified that the company has “invested hundreds of millions, maybe a billion or two, over the course of my tenure” on creators.

These platforms subsidizing the work of “creators” is the classic “big teddy bear at the carnival” tactics (via Cory Doctorow). Build the illusion by making “successful” contestants, hoping people believe that they can achieve the same thing:

“No one wins a giant teddy bear unless the carny wants them to win it. Why did the carny let the sucker win the giant teddy bear? So that he’d carry it around all day, convincing other suckers to put down five bucks for their chance to win one.

The carny allocated a giant teddy bear to that poor sucker the way that platforms allocate surpluses to key performers — as a convincer in a “Big Store” con, a way to rope in other suckers who’ll make content for the platform, anchoring themselves and their audiences to it.

Sure, you can stick around on social media and play the game, and maybe someday you’ll hit the algorithmic lottery, but please don’t let that become your long term strategy. Lottery tickets make horrible retirement plans.

I didn’t leave social media because I listened to the OFF THE GRID podcast and Amelia Hruby, PHD told me step by step how to delete my accounts, or give me steps 1-10 how I’d find work if I don’t have a LinkedIn account.

I left the social media platforms because Amelia showed that it was possible.

Artist Edgar Fabián Frías, from a recent Off The Grid episode, on leaving social media:

“It’s like we’re all starting to reorient and move in a different direction. And of course it’s gonna take, you know, a lot of different shapes and forms.

But I am just so excited to see like how we start to innovate, ’cause we’re all so creative and, and you know, there’s so many geniuses in our networks that I’m thrilled to see what happens when we start to kind of put our energy in this direction.”

If there’s a map, there’d be no magic to it because it takes away the tension. When there’s no tension, it’s just color by numbers, something to follow, and if it doesn’t work out, you can point your finger and say, “see? I knew it wouldn’t work.”

A new way is possible, and it’s gonna require some work, magic, and community to figure it all out.

We’ll find the new way together, when dipping our feet into a creek, or during the conversation on a long drive home after a show.

I didn’t leave social media because I listened to the OFF THE GRID podcast and Amelia Hruby, PHD told me step by step how to delete my accounts, or give me steps 1-10 how I’d find work if I don’t have a LinkedIn account.

I left the social media platforms because Amelia showed that it was possible.

Artist Edgar Fabián Frías, from a recent Off The Grid episode:

“It happened because she showed that it was possible.  It’s like we’re all starting to reorient and move in a different direction. And of course it’s gonna take, you know, a lot of different shapes and forms.

But I am just so excited to see like how we start to innovate, ’cause we’re all so creative and, and you know, there’s so many geniuses in our networks that I’m thrilled to see what happens when we start to kind of put our energy in this direction.”

If there’s a map, there’d be no magic to it because it takes away the tension. When there’s no tension, it’s just color by numbers, something to follow, and if it doesn’t work out, you can point your finger and say, “see? I knew it wouldn’t work.”

A new way is possible, and it’s gonna require some work, magic, and community to figure it all out.

We’ll find the new way together, when dipping our feet into a creek, or during the conversation on a long drive home after a show.

Amelia Hruby, PHD is a guest on next week’s Escape Pod Zoom call.

Max Pete and I had a nice talk about chasing tech dreams, the rise (or comeback?) of offline community, and how creatives can find balance between being seen online and actually living their lives.

Some solid quotes from Max during this talk:

“The tech dream is a nightmare… more people I talk to that are in this industry want to leave and do something else—like work at the coffee shop, work at Trader Joe’s—but don’t know how to do that or feel like they can’t.”

“As a community professional, we often put ourselves on the back burner… it leads to burnout. My next talk will be about how to take care of yourself while taking care of others.”

It’s okay to be forgotten and not know everything or everyone. You don’t need to be famous or popular or known by everyone to do good work.