What Being a Social Media Manager Taught me about Humanity

Riley Higgins
Sep 6, 2018 · 2 min read
Illustration by Artsy Couture

I spent nearly a year and a half as the Social Media Manager for an education-oriented foundation in my hometown, serving as the mediator/communicator between the community and the foundation. As the head of social media, I spent a good majority of my time in the office producing short videos/promos for marketing purposes; photographing/editing photos; communicating with audience in a timely manner; drafting/creating advertising material. Along with the standard in-house duties, I had the privilege of venturing out into the community to understand our demographic on a more personal level. In terms of my growth professionally and personally, this was by far the aspect of the job that I adored the most.

The depths of my personality can be traced back to my parlous curiosity, serving as the basis from which my optimistic disposition formed. This occasionally dangerous curiosity, paired with the unprecedented experiences I encountered just off the beaten Twitter path, resulted in unforeseen, meaningful human connections that would have otherwise gone unexplored. These out-of-the-blue interactions with various individuals have always provided me with a sense of bewilderment; a deeper connection with, and understanding of, the human psyche, and the exploration of the often hidden innocence and geniality that I believe all human beings possess.

While the social media outlets I relied on served as an efficient, facile method to communicate with our extensive audience, under no circumstance does it measure up to the indispensable opportunity for face-to-face interaction; perhaps the most invaluable lesson now engrained within my every action and thought. Because we now live in a headline society where the majority would rather absorb a one-sentence-interpretation of a story than attempt to comprehend its entirety, I know that this lesson will prove crucial to my success.

As a human race, we truly are more alike than we are unalike, and I had the pleasure of experiencing that firsthand with this job. My time at the foundation graciously, though sometimes distressingly, forced me to confront fundamental truths about myself and the lens through which I view the world. To some people, a job is simply a way to make ends meet; for me, this job was my creative outlet and a comprehensive assistant in my search for much-needed humanity.

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