Social Media
I have always been the kind of person who preferred to have a conversation in person or on a voice call. Texting is cool but I still don’t think it’s for full conversations, although, I am guilty of having conversations over text. This is also contributing to me becoming a Millennial.
I have avoided social media pretty much as long as it’s been around because, for one thing, I rarely like pictures of myself and they seem to be a big part of it. Since it always takes me forever to decide whether or not I like my pictures it was easier to just avoid taking them. The other thing was, of course, I definitely wasn’t up for the negative comments that I would hear people on social media complaining about.
How It Started
I retired early just before my fiftieth birthday and realized I had some free time until my next gig. With the encouragement of my millennial daughter and her fiancé I decided to give social media a try.
I started with Instagram and realized the possibilities appeared to be endless. I really enjoyed seeing the creativity of the people I started to follow. I just didn’t know if I had the courage and I cringed at the idea, because it just wasn’t my thing...was it?
There’s a line from a movie that “sometimes all you need is 20 seconds of insane courage and I promise you something great will happen.”
Well let’s just see.
So here I am on Instagram as @theparkeway AND set up a website, theparkeway.com, to start a blog. Now I say this as if I just snapped my fingers and made it happen. There is quite a lot to learn and I am only at the beginning. It’s funny that you can use social media like, YouTube, to learn about pretty much anything. There you have it, my resources are the millennials and YouTube.
Now it’s just a matter of what to write about. I guess it will be whatever I feel like writing about. This is obviously how a millennial would respond. I know this because that’s what I hear them say when I’m browsing on social media.
Since I do enjoy fashion and writing I figured I’d see where those 20 seconds of insane courage could take me.
I will admit I panicked every time I posted something the first few times because I’d spend so much time overthinking it. I am getting better at not doing that as much and just throwing (some, not all) caution to the wind.
Pictures
So far my least favorite thing is still taking pictures because it’s not as simple as just posing and snapping away. There are concerns about lighting, angles, background and then comes the real work of editing after you finally take the picture. This is next level stuff and I am definitely a work in progress.
IG Captions
Once you finally get a picture you want to use and edit it, THEN, you have to figure out a caption to write under it. Of course since I am queen of the over thinkers when it comes to this kind of thing, I cannot tell you how hard this continues to be for me. So much for pictures being worth a thousand words.
I am also learning about how to use multiple hashtags to increase views of my content. This too has some logic attached to it that I am still learning about.
I have much respect for everyone who has made a career on social media and monetized it successfully. I had been so busy with my career in the corporate world that I never really gave it a moments thought. There is a lot of work and creativity that goes into it and I think it’s absolutely awesome.
Comments
There is a lot of commentary, feelings and feedback that is returned from those who consume the content. That part of social media is fascinating because your confidence has to be an impenetrable shield that filters out the negative and lets in the positive. So I leave you with this quote:
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent” - Eleanor Roosevelt
Now let’s get on with this adventure!!
I would love to hear your thoughts. Please leave me a comment below.