Social Media: Not the Be-All, End-All (Gasp!)

Hey readers. Seeing as how it’s been 6 weeks since I last blogged, I am throwing up the obligatory post. However, this one has a bit of a personal twist. Got your emo hats on? Let’s do this.

The last two months have been what I not-so-affectionately refer to as a clusterf**k. Among various other travesties, I found myself facing surgery of the C-word persuasion and, most recently, the death of a best friend’s mother. Specifics around my circumstances aside, the roller coaster that is my life has taught me several very important (read: impossibly thorny) lessons.

Because I work in social media, I am a chronic over-sharer. My networks are privy to the most trifling details of my everyday life: what I cooked for dinner, how many miles I ran today, what my dog looks like post-bath… and on and on. I’ve enjoyed sharing these things about myself. I love finding new people with similar interests. But…

We need to be present.

I think about how precious life is. How it could be eradicated in a mere moment. How our loved ones could be gone tomorrow. (Whoa, hello, Debbie Downer!) And I’m tired of wasting my life scouring Facebook and Twitter and Pinterest and who knows what shiny objects are to come.

I don’t want to miss one more smile, one more kiss, one more toast… over a tweet, a post, a check-in.

It’s so ironic that in such a digitally connected world, we have never been more emotionally disconnected from one another.

Now, as a social media marketer, of course I want my target demographic to “be engaged” with us digitally. But as a consumer, I want to experience my life and hold onto the memories of it… not be caught in a never ending compulsion to digitally document life. For example, this 4th of July, I was struck by how many people were viewing fireworks through the lens of their iPhone cameras, rather than live and unfiltered.

Yes, social media certainly serve wonderful purposes. There’s absolutely no denying that. But, my life’s purpose is bigger than that. And I cannot and will not let myself forget that.