AN OPEN, CONTROVERSIAL, HEARTFELT LETTER TO INSTAGRAM, SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE CREATIVE COMMUNITY IN THE TIME CORONA VIRUS

I’ve honestly got so tired of the endless repetitive song telling us of all the beautiful and useful things we should do, learn and improve during the isolation period we have been forced into by COVID-19.

Instagram and other social media platforms have been flooded by posts of people suggesting thousands of ways for us to fill our free time, as if free time was some sort of childhood monster we all have to flee from. Tutorials, advice pieces, suggestions, DIY. Renovate your house, learn a new skill, start a new business, cook, exercise, take up a new beauty routine… but above all: embrace the slow living, one of the biggest hypocrisies of social media communication with by which we have been brainwashed for far too long.

If there is one thing I have learnt during this period, is the beauty of slowing down for real. And I have no intention to fill up the emptiness of having more time with new tasks, to do lists and projects. How can we possibly embrace the slow and mindful living if we cannot spend one minute without being engaged in something without fearing for our own sanity?

The social media platforms, and specifically Instagram with all its new beautiful algorithms, want us to do more and share more. Its hunger for new content is insatiable and if you use social media as a major tool for marketing your business as I do, while you preach the slow living mantra, you better get busy doing something so you have something to share because if you don’t feed the beast constantly with new content, its algorithm won’t show your posts to anyone, even to the people who follow you regardless of the fact that, well, they had decided to. They are not given the opportunity to see your stuff because the little mechanical brain of the machine has decided that they better show you only what is relevant, not sure how that is been decided but well, that’s the way it is so forget who you decided to follow, they will decide what you see.

So, as a creative, you need to create more content and make sure is RELEVANT, because otherwise you lose the race and your business will die. And the platforms users, on their side, can get flustered every day by tons of images, all RELEVANT, for sure, but just too many for anyone to process. So we are all blown away, in the turbulence of this gust of wind, so powerful, we don’t even see it coming. Overwhelmed, traumatised, stunned so that even during the isolation period, where we are apparently slowing down, taking time off, we make sure we end up being so busy, we are actually left with not one second free to think. 

At this stage I have to make a premise. I use social media. I do my marketing on social media. I play the game. They’ve opened opportunities for me that I could not even imagine without them. I enjoy lots of the content I find on social media. I’ve met beautiful humans through social media and discovered amazing art and talent. So this is not intended to be another demonization of the platforms out there. It’s something totally different. 

Coming back to us and all the noise social media provide freely delivered at our doorstep every day, wouldn’t it be beautiful if when we log on the platforms we would find less but more meaningful and quality work? If the messages shared would be fewer but would be something that needed to be said? If we didn’t have to listen to all that goes through people’s mind, like a flow of unprocessed thought from someone suffering from verbal diarrhoea? If we, creatives, would be encouraged to put out there our best work, instead of being encouraged to create day in and day out to earn the right to participate in the race? Who, honestly, can create quality new content every day without being totally drained in the end? Which, artist or creative can swear that every day they can put out their best work, that they never need to stop, look for more inspiration, slow down? And who in all honesty can claim that they have something meaningful to say every day, multiple times a day?

Wouldn’t we live in a better world if social media wouldn’t encourage us to just be more instead of being better? If what we preach would also be something we practise, going back to the slow and mindful living tune? If people could spend time on social media getting more out of it because most of the noise is gone and only the music stays? Wouldn’t we be better humans if we would retain our ability to hear our own thoughts instead of suppressing them behind this deafening racket?

So, if we really need to take the chance to learn something out of this isolation period this is what it is I have to learn: that we can slow down and even stop if we want to, that if we join the race after this or if we have never left it because we have just been racing within our four walls instead of out in the world, that is our decision. That if all us would speak less and think more, what we have to say would have more meaning and value for everyone who listens. That what we create could be of much higher quality if we weren’t under so much pressure to keep on vomiting out anything we can give until our guts are out too. That if we all take a stand, we can change. That the algorithm is hypocritical but doesn’t rule the world if only we all stop following its instructions. 

That free time means free time. Time to think, to do something for the sake of doing it, with no purpose or goal, to even get bored… because it’s out of these three “activities” that all the best of humanity can be born. It’s upon us to decide what we want to parent in the future. And once you have set aside some time to think and just be, god forbids go ahead and learn a new skill, renovate your home, or do whatever else the heart tells you.