Social Media

We are full, intricate, complex people. We have joys, doubts, fears, and hopes - sometimes all within the span of a minute. We are constantly changing into new versions of ourselves. There is no way that something as simple as social media can fully represent what it's like to be human. Social media is like a mirror, just a reflection of reality, carefully curated to show you exactly what you want to see. The only way to keep healthy boundaries as a content creator (because today you have to be some kind of content creator to be an artist, but that is a blog for another day) is to recognize this fact. You have to be able to be vulnerable enough that people listen, but not so vulnerable that you get burnt out. Sharing your story is important, but how far is too far? How do you draw the line between vulnerability that is helpful versus vulnerability that is not? In an article for LinkedIn, Kyrus Keenan Westcott gives his insight into how to have healthy social media boundaries as a content creator. One way to do this that I thought was really helpful was defining your comfort zone up front, before you ever post anything, and sticking to that. What are you comfortable telling the world? What do you never want to talk about publicly? Stick to the core themes of your page and try not to post outside of those themes. This will keep you from hating your time on social media. Like I said before, we are too complex to be accurately represented online. So tell your story as authentically and openly as you want to, without burning yourself out. My advice is to let your story rule your social media, instead of your social media ruling your story. Don't post anything outside of that. Remind yourself that social media is just a reflection of the real person. Anything that you put into the world will only be a reflection of you. So don't put all of your energy into trying to get socials to tell your whole story. Only you can do that.

"Your story is the most valuable thing you own." ~Jill Riley Owner/CEO