Social Media’s Effect on the Creator’s Self Worth — Inspiring or Damaging?
I am someone who ran a blog for about half a year before my other professions and projects took over my time. With full time schooling, two part time jobs, and a freelancing gig on the side, running my blog was something I couldn’t muster up the passion to prioritize anymore. I am currently far too enthralled with my other projects, those I have far more love towards.
However, when I ran my blog back in the summer, every single morning I would wake up and immediately check my Google Analytics to see what traffic my blog obtained in the short amount of time I was sleeping for. Even the slightest change in viewership would excite or disappoint me, depending on how much or how little my page views increased. I would check and see if anyone was currently on my blog, and if so, where they were reading from; and I would also obsessively promote my new posts across blogger Facebook groups, hoping to get as much traffic as I possibly could receive before a new post I wrote would go live. I was so enticed with the comments, the page views, the ad clicks — until eventually, it made the entire process a chore. Eventually, posting to my blog wasn’t a fun hobby anymore — it felt like a job where I was constantly monitoring my performance, critiquing my actions to attempt to improve the worthless statistics garnered from people who only clicked on my post so I would click on theirs in return.
A lot of creators feel like this once they have their projects online, up and running — their passion project that began as a fun side hobby had turned into a monetary source of income, leaving them to feel as if they had a responsibility to continue on with it, even if they lost their love for it. It is too often of a story where creators online post manifestos after a long, unannounced hiatus stating the content they were creating as of late wasn’t what they wanted, and wasn’t up to the standard of quality they had once held.
A good example of this is Michelle Phan, a beauty and makeup YouTuber who completely abandoned the internet without a word. She eventually returned with her video, Why I Left, explaining why she did it.
The video details her struggle entering the commercial side of YouTube, where executives and managers were constantly telling her what to do and how to do it, all to accumulate an online presence that could trick her followers into believing the fake, executive generated version of her to garner more views, comments, subscribers, and ad revenue. She states in her video that all day she was attached to her phone, obsessing over how many views and subscribers she gained per day. The video describes her journey through YouTube and eventually ends up with the fact that through the money and online fame, Michelle was forced to take a step back and find out who she actually was, as compared to the commercialized version of herself she presented online.
While social media metrics are without a doubt, a damaging statistic to measure one’s self worth on, they can also inspire budding creators and entrepreneurs to go outside of their comfort zone, connect with others around them, and push to be consistent in an effort to increase engagement on their social media accounts. As a freelance graphic designer, it is inspiring to see the increase of engagement on my new designs, postings, and other listings, as it encourages me to continue on with my passion as I have a following how support me and my dream.
Metrics are useful analytics to utilize in measuring your growth and engagement, however, are very easy to fall into and obsess over. As with everything in life — moderation is key.
