Five Lies Series: Lie #2

Lie Number Two: Your social media following is a direct reflection of your talent, ability, and value.
 

This is so creative, I thought to myself, everyone is going to love it. I clicked "publish" and then "share" and waited for the waves of social media notifications to come flooding in. I'm pretty sure I'm going to break the internet with this one, I thought. Well not really, I'm not THAT cocky, but I was very confident that the piece that I wrote would generate a significant response.

Submit.
Wait.
Refresh.
Wait.
Refresh.
Take a shower
Check phone with soapy hands.
Wait.
Refresh.
Restart phone because there must be a technical issue.
Wait.
Refresh.

Nothing. No likes, no comments. I checked and checked to make sure it posted. I re-read it, making sure I wrote in English. I spent so much time worrying about why nobody was responding. And then, amongst the crickets, I heard it. "Your social media presence is a direct reflection of your talent, ability, and value."

Dangit. That's true, I thought. I've posted things before and got a great response, so I was sure I was a good writer. But I guess I've lost it. People don't like what I do. I'm not good at it. If I were, the proof would be in the likes and comments. I'm going to delete it.

I re-read my article one more time. I liked it, but not as much as I liked it the first time. They were right, all of those social media people, this was lame. And as my finger hovered over the delete post button, a notification came through. My heart jumped. Dangit. Just a girl from high school I never talk to anymore. Barely even counts. But I didn't delete the post. Instead, I kept waiting, hoping, and I'm embarrassed to say, obsessing.

That's lie number two: Your social media following is a direct reflection of your talent, ability, and value.

Umm, no. We've all become so dependent on showcasing the best parts of our life for everyone to see, and have become obsessed about the response we get. If people like and comment, we feel validated. If there's silence, we're sure we've done something wrong.

We put so much of our value in what other people say about us, that we forget to do what we love simply because we love it.

If we always measure our ability on the reaction of others, we will always be let down. Someone will always have something negative to say. Your work will never appeal to everyone. Heck, YOU will never appeal to everyone. That doesn't mean you are less valuable, or what you can do is unworthy.

Here's the truth: Our worth, our skills, and our talents are not decided on by 200 people we barely know on Facebook. We have to live, work, and create because it is something we inherently love to do. We need to get to the point where we do what do even at the risk of nobody ever reading the book, buying the art, or seeing the show. When we do what makes us feel creative and productive regardless of the response, we will be so much happier.

Social media doesn't get to decide whether you are a good writer or a good parent or a good employee or a good friend or a good daughter. Social media doesn't get to control what you create or why you create it. The sooner you can release the control that social media has over you and your creative spirit, the happier and more productive you will be.