Social Media is like a Toxic Ex-boyfriend?!

   "Everything we experience is relative to us..."

    Here is my candid and raw opinion of social media. Prior to this year, I have always seen social media as a potentially very toxic, inauthentic, addictive, ostentatious, over-stimulating, and honestly, very entertaining entity. I confess, it really started to give me anxiety, and I had no interest in the internet controlling my thoughts or my life! Years ago, I created a Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and Twitter, and for many years after that, I avoided them all—except Youtube. I always loved me some Youtube. There is so much to learn there, how could I not? However, in its entirety, social media seemed like a minefield not worth investing my thoughts or opinions in, especially since my words had the potential to be turned against me, so I turned my nose up to it and minded my own business.

But let’s be real, if I was going to create a business and take off as an entrepreneur, social media was going to have to be a fear I faced. But did it have to be fear? Hmmm, maybe not.

    Everything we experience is relative to us which means that to change the way I feel about social media and to thrive with it, I was going to have to change my relationship to it. Instead of seeing it as a toxic ex-boyfriend, I was going to have to see it and treat like my dream-potential-forever-person. So like all young ladies who dream, I created a vision board and wrote down my desired relationship to and attributes of social media. Words like fun, inspirational, connected, abundant, authentic, maybe even profound, and a bit magical (because I can never get enough of that word) came up.

    And then I started putting in it exactly what I wanted out of it because relationships are a two-way street. I created what I wanted it to be so that it was a world where all those awesome words I previously mentioned could thrive, and I took off with this blog and other meaningful content. I then left room for the--yup, MAGIC to happen, because once I put anything out into the ether, it is out of my control, which is just fine. I might still have to block some people though.

I guess I’m starting to see what everyone seems to be gung-ho about, which is that social media in any form is instant connection however shallow or with meaningful depth it may come. I get to connect to a community of like-minded people and discover some unlikely-unconventional candidates, artists, entrepreneurs, and fun-loving souls out there. I guess it does not hurt to see what aunt Vivian and the kids have been up to from time to time. While I am learning to let go and let live on every platform, I still struggle with how time-consuming it can be and how disorienting the difference between a connection is on the internet versus in real life. Social media does not deserve the title of a toxic ex but it can never be as real or as rich as an in-person connection. What's clear is that it is a connection worth having.

To get the tools I used to propel myself out of twenty-something years of bad habits and fear, schedule a coaching session with me at www.shantiacrowley.com/life-coaching, or continue to get a stream of inspiring creative entrepreneurial content from these blogs. As always, remember you are the creator of your reality. Transform your life from the inside out.