So what's the in between? What's a good balance and does social media actually have good uses?
I agree that there probably is a lot of social media stuff going around and that it can be consuming. But it gets a little tiring when people that actually use a lot of social media write posts and tell others about how bad it is. There are a bunch of good and positive uses for your social media sites. Not everyone that uses social media doesn't have a life or is antisocial. And not everyone that uses social media is consumed by it and makes it their life. There is a healthy balance.
Fuels Creativity
I can't tell you how many times I have found inspiration and creativity on social media. Especially Instagram. I have come to love Instagram. The fact that I get to look at photographers, regular everyday people, poets and other writers' feeds is an amazing thing. I also really like the joy of looking around my everyday life to see what I can take a picture of and post. It's one of my favorite things during the day.
I have found so many cool feeds which have aided in my experience as a writer, and as a person who is striving to be better at art all around. My ultimate favorite at the moment is The Writing Collective. Which I found via Instagram. The founders Teagan Sturmer, Lilah Higgins and Miranda Buell are three sweet people who have some of the coolest IG feeds. They also have a facebook group that seems pretty. I only have the facebook app and haven't taken the time to actually make an account, so I don't have facebook examples at the moment.
Inspires Dreams
One of the things I love about Pinterest, Instagram, forums and blogs are that they inspire a sort of drive in a person. They help visualize your dreams in a way you never thought of before. See pictures of places you're about to go. Hearing stories and reading blog posts about the place you want to travel. Being able to plan a cool vacation using Pinterest. And following IG users that live where you want to go. It's an unique experience that you won't get if you seclude yourself from all social media.
Yeah, one can spend hours and hours looking through feeds on SM's that they don't get any work done. Pick a certain time out of the day to spend on SM's. I look through IG randomly through the day, never on for more than a few minutes at a time. I only look at Pinterest if I'm done writing for the day or need some kind of inspiration. I don't have a FB yet, like I said, but I am on writing forums. I look through those towards the evening and only for a few minutes at a time. It's a balance, but a good one. Because like I said, they can inspire dreams.
Creates Visions
This kind of goes along with the previous one, but more in depth. For example, my sister is an amateur photographer looking to get a business up and running. Through IG and FB and other things she's found some great resources and talked to great people that have helped her come a long way. Just looking through other photographers feeds on social media has created a vision inside of her. I follow quite a bit of writers on my social media accounts that do the same thing for me. I also follow dance accounts and typography accounts that help inspire and create a vision that I would like to happen some day. It's those small steps that SM's help us take.
A Little Bit of Encouragement
The amount of times I have been surfing through one of my social media accounts and saw a quote or a bible verse that someone had posted and those words bring peace my soul, is insanely high. There are some seriously encouraging instagram and pinterest and facebook accounts that sometimes I think we miss, because we are caught up in the 'people' and not the actual 'feeds'. I really don't much about twitter or linked in, but maybe they have the same kinds of accounts on them as well. I really wouldn't know. Some SM's have little purpose, I agree.
You could be that inspiration to someone on your social media. You could post a verse, or an encouraging quote and never realize what impact it could have on someone.
Exploration of New Things
I love new things, but I don't often show new things to people until I have mastered them. A couple years ago for Christmas I had gotten a caligraphy set. I used it once or twice to try it out and decided I wasn't good at it. So I put the leather journal, the quill caligraphy pen and the ink away and didn't use it for a long time. A few months ago, I ran across an Instagram account that did typography and caligraphy a lot. I sat down and started copying the letters from that page with pencil until I felt semi comfortable doing it with ink. I found verses and quotes and did my own style of lettering and fonts. It's fun. I'm not good at it by it any means, but it's relaxing and fun.
Social media helps us explore new art. Explore what we love. The endless possibilities of finding new ways to be creative on social media sites are awesome.
Not always is social media bad. Not all people completely waste their lives online. There are some great uses for these accounts. I'll share some of my favorite Instagram accounts, Later on I might share some Facebook accounts when I actually get one of those... I would do Pinterest accounts as well, but I have way too many for you all to check out. So you can just click on my Pinterest widget in the sidebar and check out all the people I follow if you want some cool accounts.
What about you? Do you think there are some good uses to social media? Have you been inspired lately by a social media account or been encouraged through one?
Well, a lot of times all we see is young people wasting their time on all this new media stuff and sometimes it's hard to see the positives in these things. I only ever use my accounts for creative purposes and so it's easier to find the more positive ways to use social media. Especially to fuel creativity. :)
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