I have an important announcement: I am leaving social media (on both my personal and business accounts). My decision to eliminate the use of these platforms has crept up insidiously over a long period of time.
I hope you can watch this entire video, but if you can’t here are the bullet points:
• My screen time faces me with my mortality. I want distraction-free time back. I want my real life back.
• I’m uninspired when using social media now.
• It feels very copy/paste, yet still invites so much comparison.
• Parasocial relationships blur lines between professional and friend.
* I didn’t mention this part in the video, but i hope sharing my decision to leave doesn’t translate as projecting criticism to those who do or continue to use social media. This is my own experience as a 1 person business.
I’ve never known what F.A.C.E. Makeup Artistry looks like without using social media to cornerstone its promotions. I’m nervous about what my work will look like without these “tools” because I’ve never done this before. But I feel it in my gut that eliminating social media will be extremely rewarding. I plan on sharing my experience on my website and hope to contribute to a “permission slip” for other business owners who might feel similarly to take the leap too.
I will leave a note in my bio sections on where to find me/ how to contact me for a while to phase out the news.
Where You Can Find Me:
Here, The Website: *You can join my monthly newsletter to keep up with the happenings.
Email me.
Thank you to everyone who has shown up on here over the years. I will see you In real life! I’m not leaving Makeup Artistry, I’m just leaving my persona of it all.
-Erin
P.S. How funny is it that I have to make a video to post on social media to announce I’m leaving it?
INSPIRATIONS FOR LEAVING:
THIS ARTICLE: …”is mystery the new authenticity? Is a whisper the new shout? Is this a bad move or a boss move? Perhaps the new definition of luxury brand power is this: real power is when a brand is so strong it can disappear from social media and still be the object of clamorous attention and intense desire…”
THE BUSINESS VERSION OF THIS SCENE: “I had this client leave me a voicemail while I was in a webinar so I texted her and in the meantime she messaged me on Facebook and so I messaged her back and by that time she had emailed me and the whole thing got out of control. And I miss the days when you had one phone number and inbox and that one inbox either had an inquiry or it didn’t. And now you just have to go around checking all these different portals just to communicate by seven different technologies. It’s exhausting.” -The daily business version on the famous “different technologies” ramble by Mary, (Drew Barrymore’s character) in “He’s Just Not That Into You”.
THIS PODCAST EPISODE: Questions answered in this episode: What advice do you have for those that want to use social media more intentionally for their business? How do I create a social media strategy for my business without sacrificing my personal privacy? How do I determine the line between too much and just enough when I use social media for promotion? Did you discover a newfound value or a lack of value regarding social media after being off of it? Did your absence from social media make you realize it made your life more meaningful, or did it make you realize it’s just a modern platform to advertise?
AN EXCERPT FROM THIS BOOK: “Sometimes it is difficult for us to realize we are losing our instincts, for it is often an insidious process that does not occur all in one day, but rather over a long period of time. Too, the loss or deadening of instinct is often entirely supported by the surrounding culture, and sometimes even by other women who endure the loss of instinct as a way of achieving belonging in a culture that keeps no nourishing habitat for the natural woman.” -Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés, “Women Who Run With The Wolves”
