Happy Thursday, writer friends!
This week, my 72-year-old mother hit 8,400 subscribers on her YouTube channel.
My mother has run an Internet business before and had social media channels associated with it. But this one, she said, is purely for fun.
Twenty-two years ago, almost exactly to the month, I was being told off daily by my parents for spending too much time on the computer, for staying up too late doing who-knows-what on the Internet. Last month, I had to remind my mother over an international call that, really, she would need to stop posting on YouTube right after she had eye surgery. (I was secretly very proud. And vindicated.)
But my mother inspired me, too, and unknowingly solved a problem that I’ve been wrestling with for months, if not years.
See, I’ve had a love-hate relationship with social media for a while now. I want to use it to connect with readers and friends, and I want to get known and seen more widely so I can bring more people into this newsletter and my work. But I’m not interested in taking pretty photos—of my workspace, my life, or my family. I’m super comfortable oversharing in my writing. I’m comfortable being on video. I don’t even mind having photos taken and posted. But to constantly be taking photos and videos of my life as content? Not my vibe. To constantly be angry about politics and all that’s wrong with the world? Not my vibe. To post endless threads on how to improve yourself as though you’re not enough already? Totally not my vibe.
After the chat with my mother the other day, in which she told me that her YouTube channel is purely fun for her, I realized I’d been missing a trick. It struck me like a lightning bolt that this had been the missing ingredient for me. Social media felt like work. I felt I was forcing myself to be on those platforms in a way that wasn’t authentically me.
Because I wasn’t thinking about me.
I never write for an audience. I write for me. (Including this.) But when it came to social media, I had never asked the question: What would make this fun for me? What would make me want to show up regularly? If I approached it as a fun project that I could lose hours to, what would I be doing? What would I be posting? What would I be sharing?
The answer was simple: I would share my words. No pretty pictures. Just text. And later, maybe video.
I decided to turn this into a creative project. Art. Something that brings me joy when I work on it rather than an obligation I have to take on for business growth. (For me, that never lasts.)
So I got back on social media this week. I haven’t got it all figured out yet, but I took the first step. I created two weeks’ worth of posts and absolutely loved working on them. And now, even if no one likes, even if no one shares, even if no one reads, it won’t matter. I won’t have wasted my time.
Because I’ll have spent my time playing around with words.
And that’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do.
Cheers,
Natasha