Use your voice
It’s my birthday. Ok, when this post goes live it will be a few days past my birthday, but right now I’m just going to go ahead and acknowledge that it is my birthday. Every year I get a little weirder about my birthday. I think it started when I turned 30. That was 7 years ago. As I turn 37 I am amazed and in absolute disbelief that I’m not actually turning 27. I don’t feel 10 years older, I don’t think I look 10 years older. Except, the last 24 hours I’ve been in a whirlwind of emotion and frustration that I do in fact have more defined wrinkles on my face, sagging skin along my jaw line, and probably other noticeable physical features that I’m going to ignore and not look for. All of a sudden I have a strange fear that my body is simply going to disintegrate abruptly.
Look, life is short. I noticed something else today after I posted a random video to Instagram of me singing a song I heard on my YouTube playlist. I’m realizing it’s very rare that anyone posts a video to social media that isn’t a compilation of a voice over, popular music at the time, or something else that is attention getting. Certainly an a Capella video would not receive the desired amount of attention on these platforms. More importantly, it would require being vulnerable and authentic. There is no hiding behind trending social media memes or audios. Everyday I use social media, I have to remind myself the intent behind my post. Is it to make sure I get likes from my friends and the few random people who might stumble upon the post? Or is it because I genuinely want to share this content with others? If it’s the first reason, then I better not post it. Or I need to evaluate how I can make the post genuine so I feel good about sharing my content. Life goes by way too fast to be prioritizing how someone “likes” you, especially on social media.
Make sure you’re using social media in a way that aligns with your values. Use your own voice. Yes, there are many content creators that take the voice overs and trending memes to develop something more creative. But honestly, if you have the choice between posting a snippet of a song that is on your heart verses posting something that you know will get a lot of “likes”, well, I just hope you use your voice.
-Laura
