No Filter

I have to admit that I have a love hate relationship with all forms of social media. I like it because it negates those awkward family gatherings where people tell you they haven’t seen you since you were “yay high.” They can simply check your page and see pictures of you, your significant other, and your kids/pets. But on the other hand, it creates a tense, albeit mostly online, situation if you post something one of those friends or followers doesn’t like or agree with. It does not help one bit that I have no filter. I am curt, sarcastic, untactful, and unapologetically unfiltered. I have no filter, and if it won’t cost me my job or custody of my child, I will probably say it.

Honestly, if I had to choose, I miss the Myspace days. Just lots of pictures, picking a sparkly, animated background, and a song to play when someone clicked your page. It was much more carefree back then. Nowadays, there’s Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram, among countless others. I barely can use britthe ones I mentioned by name, so I don’t really bother with any others (besides Medium…it’s kinda social media, right?) On any one of these sites, if you say something that ruffles the wrong feathers, you will be put on blast. You will be screenshotted (?), shared, and will go viral. It may or not be one of your actual friends or family members. It’s basically become the norm for people you don’t know to troll you or even celebrities simply because, well, because they can.

I took a five year hiatus from social media, only returning three months ago due to a need to put my two thousand “friends” to use as possible customers for my eCommerce site. I immediately began to regret it. What does FB think it’s doing allowing me to still receive messages when I have my messenger off? Have I no privacy? The only reason I still have it now is because I am pursuing my writing career, and want to gain a following on social media so that I can eventually write and sell my book. And to make matters worse, I recently scrapped my site so that I could focus on writing. You can read more on that here.

I feel like due to my current need for social media to promote my writing, I can’t be my actual unfiltered self. I realize I can’t please everyone, and that there are bound to be ruffled feathers. I know this. I know there will be people that don’t like my writing, or me for that matter. But I can’t be my authentic self on social media, like I could in the Myspace days. Like I could before I became a city government employee. Like I could before I decided to pursue a career in writing. I still have no filter in reality, but social media Bri behaves….slightly. But in the end, at least to me, it’s well worth it.