The Incredible Overwhelm of Multiple Spaces
Here’s how you can reclaim your peace of mind
A Google search of any creator would usually yield a link to their social media page(s). That’s right. You can now find content creators who have not just a website but an Instagram handle, a Twitter page, a Facebook profile, a YouTube channel, a Whatsapp group and a TikTok page (if you’re based in a country where it’s not banned). If they are also an author, you’d get links to buy their books on Amazon and perhaps reviews of their books on Goodreads.
So it’s a bit ironic when said creators write about how they are overwhelmed with the digital space and all of the noise it brings with it.
My question to them is simple:
Why are you available everywhere?
The Root Cause of Overwhelm
I’ve been a blogger since 2007. At the time, I had one space to share my thoughts- my blog. It was also a time when social media was very nascent and the idea of blog marketing, promotion and sharing wasn’t rampant. It was, truly, a simpler time.
The second social media entered the scene, however, the entire landscape of creation changed. We were all now geared towards not just writing on our blogs, but sharing that content everywhere — Facebook, Twitter, Instagram to name a few.
After a few years, social media morphed and grew into a beast of its own. Now people were focused more on sharing their ideas and pictures on those channels instead of their original blogs. The instant validation (and outrage) was fuel to their ideas (and possibly, their egos).
I don’t blame them; I was part of the same bandwagon for the better part of a decade. Until the day I just decided to stop it all.
Within a year, I deleted my Facebook account, deactivated my Twitter page with over 5k followers and made my Instagram page a private one.
These decisions made it much easier for me to stay in the present and actually sit with my stillness — something I find that most people today are unfamiliar with, unfortunately.
The Challenge with Always Being On
Being constantly connected never gives us the opportunity to learn anything. How could we? We never have time away from our social media platforms.
When the mind is searching for the next thing to outrage about in a public space like Twitter, when does it have time to actually be still?
There are so many content creators that I used to connect with, back in the good old days of just blogging. Today, most of them don’t blog anymore. They’re too busy being present on various platforms. And with it, they’re more and more overwhelmed. Can you blame them?
How to Actually Reduce the Overwhelm
Three words: Leave Social Media
Sounds simple? That’s because it actually is. We just don’t ever give it the chance.
Leaving social media has improved my life in a myriad different ways. The benefits of social media are too miniscule for me to consider returning to it anymore.
In fact, being away from those platforms has made it easier for me to stick to Dunbar’s number of less than 150 true and deep social connections.
You see, the problem with overwhelm is that we create it for ourselves. We go out and add more social media accounts and more ‘connections’, as if that somehow makes us more important.
Social media has an insiduous way of making you believe that the larger your number of followers, the more people care about you. Honestly, nothing could be further from the truth. If you fell sick tomorrow, how many of your followers would be there for you, in person? Obviously, we’re not counting your neighbors and family who may also be among your followers.
Take my advice. Leave social media. You don’t need it and believe me, you are better off without it. Instead, focus on what made you a creator in the first place — write, shoot pictures, create art, make music.
And do it all in the silence of obscurity.