You’re not alone!
At the risk of sounding like a Valley Girl turned Luddite, I’m totally over the Internet these days.
Ok, that’s not really an accurate statement. I’m over most of the Internet. I still love hanging out in the Artists & Profit Makers forums and I’ve been listening to more podcasts lately. (If you know me, you know what a shock that is!)
But the parts of the Internet that used to bring me joy – blogging, social media, the thrill of creating fun images for those places – well, they just aren’t doing it for me anymore.
And I know I’m not alone.
There are a couple of reasons for this.
The first, as I’ve talked about before, is the proliferation of AI. I’m finding it difficult to put any effort into creating content for the Internet when I know it’s just going to be hoovered up by massive corporations who will profit off my creative labor.
The second is that, with everyone we now know about the ill effects of social media, I’m hard-pressed to lean on a marketing strategy that asks my customers to spend their time in increasingly toxic spaces.
If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve likely noticed that my participation on that platform has dropped dramatically since April. (Probably more so than when I took my Instagram break last year.) That’s because, in an effort to curb my time on the platform, I hid the app from myself. (I moved it to a different screen on my phone, to break the habit of automatically scrolling to the app.) I did this, rather than deleting the app completely so that I know when someone tags me in a post or DMs me. As a business owner, I have enough of a presence there that I didn’t feel like I could quit cold turkey, but I wanted to break the habit.
I’ll admit this disillusion with the Internet has left me a little unmoored. I remember the good old days of the Internet (we’re talking 2007/2008/2009 here) when people would jump around and comment on each other’s blogs. When the Internet wasn’t dominated by a handful of behemoths profiting off our attention. When the Internet was a happy, magical place.
For me, so much of the burnout comes from being an early adopter. From knowing what the Internet could be, and mourning what it’s become.
Unfortunately, I can’t just sit around wallowing in my grief. (Though I’ll be honest, I’ve done a fair amount of wallowing.) I’ve got a business to run, after all. And so do you.
So what’s a burned-out Valley Girl Luddite to do?
This won’t come as a shock if you’ve been paying attention, but I’m doubling down on marketing IRL. (That’s in real life because fuck social media.) And I’m approaching my online presence with more intention. (Meaning I’m leaning into the things that don’t make me want to gag, like email marketing and Artists & Profit Makers.)
Maybe this is just me being contrarian. I remember when I first started on Instagram and Pinterest (and talked about their value to artists and makers) and the pushback I got. Now it seems like the pendulum has swung in the other direction.
Yesterday, I walked a craft show with a friend, and we were amazed at the number of vendors who pushed us to follow them on Instagram. (To which I replied that I was in the process of quitting, and could I join their email list instead.) With more than mounting evidence about the decreasing reach on Instagram, I was amazed that so many artists and makers were relying on that as their primary way to connect with customers post-show.
So it’s possible that my current digital malaise is just me bucking the dominant trend.
But I don’t think so.
I think it’s more about chasing what feels good in my business. (And by extension, in my life.) When I first started using Instagram and Pinterest, they felt like wonderful platforms tailor-made for visual businesses like mine. But Instagram doesn’t feel joyful anymore, and Pinterest is hit or miss. (It still brings me traffic, but it’s a lot harder to gain traction.)
Right now, it’s interacting with potential customers in person, not through a tiny, glowing screen, that’s making me feel good in my business. So that’s what I’m leaning into.
You might feel differently, and that’s ok. If using Insta or Pinterest or TikTok or any other platform feels like a happy and fruitful way to market your business, stick with it, because that’s the benchmark. But if, like me, you’re not feeling the love, know that it’s ok to opt out.
There are so many different ways to market your business. The key is finding the ones that feel good to you, even if those change over time.
