I’ve had a huge case of writer’s block. Not from a lack of not knowing what to write about, but from feeling a bit like my hands are tied or that I don’t have anything worth saying. My goal with these blog posts was to educate, inform, entertain, and share the things that interest me. Especially those things that I love or feel very passionately about such as art or magick. So why the mental constipation?
Having to personally deal with death in the family twice, an ongoing pandemic, climate change, civil rights movements, another looming recession, and a government that has left everyone to die… well, I would say is enough to make anyone scream. Then add to the fact we are now all stuck at home doing everything in the virtual world, especially small businesses. Social media networks in turn have been amping up ads, laws, restrictions, and general censorship to a growing audience, banking on people’s insecurities not to protest and expecting them to take it in stride.
I hate social media. I hate the business of it. I hate the algorithm BS. I hate the hoops I have to jump to make things move or appear on someone’s computer screen for profit. I HATE IT ALL.
I am seeing small business owners and artists burning out in just the last few months just to keep up with “the algorithm”. It’s ridiculous and no one is complaining. Why? Why is everyone accepting this? To get the coveted verification badge to the CTA Swipe up button on IG stories, you must have at least 10k followers for example. Reading an article about how to hack this feature made me break into hives at the idea these companies have me like a dog doing tricks for them for this CTA treat.
Due to the pandemic, I spent the majority of the Spring and Summer researching on social media and business to optimize my output. It’s exhausting. No wonder I am seeing more virtual assistants, content creators, or teams in general. Years ago, it was only companies that could outsource work as cited by writer A. J. Jacobs‘s book My Life as an Experiment. Autumn going into the winter, I spent it implementing what I learned and seeing modest results. Content calendars and schedules cover my wall and desktop. I took out ads on IG and Facebook to push traffic to my stores. What have I learned? What have I accomplished? When do I get to focus on actual work?
How much longer can I do this? How much longer can I keep it up? I already was burning out just before 2019 started. Is there another way? Thanks to google I have to censor my artwork on my own website. My own website that I work hard on…censored! If I want to show up in web searches or put out ads, I have no choice but to comply.
What do you think fellow reader?
How do you feel?
What have you been doing to deal with these pressures?
Leave a comment below.