If you can’t beat them, join them.
This may apply to certain situations but not at all times. There is a notion that practically everyone in the world is glued to social media; that isn’t correct. It would surprise you to know the number of literate individuals who have chosen to retain the serenity of life that existed before social media crept into the private spaces of most individuals. Many have deliberately refused to join social networks in order to maintain some form of discipline and sanity.
No doubt, social media has played a huge role in the professional corridors; widely connecting people and providing job opportunities globally. It has its upsides but its downsides also cannot be ignored. For most serious minded people whose jobs require a high level of concentration, they prefer not to occupy themselves further with the ever increasing urge to follow social media trends. The active social media users on the other hand believe that a day without social media somewhat makes you invisible to the world. In other words, they have become obsessed with the need to be active on social media.
Here are some important truths about social media that users and career professionals need to come to terms with.
One, becoming an ardent social media user does not improve you professionally. Let me rephrase that. Your professionalism or career advancement does not depend on nor does it appreciate at the rate that your ‘followership’ on social media does. It is not a criterion for a successful career. If anything, the traditional methods of diligence and being really good at what you do still remain the relevant factors that keep your recommendations coming and you are never out of the job market.
Two, there are so many trivialities on social media that you can live without. You could use some quiet moments in your life to think on ways to improve yourself and better ways to impart value to the marketplace. In contrast to this, social media is designed to be addictive; taking a greater part of your working and waking hours on low value activities. Overtime, the attention span and concentration capacity of many have dropped.
Three, ideas flow when you make out time for them; ideas give birth to value. And guess what? Value attracts opportunities, with or without the social media. So, opportunities are not as far-fetched as the social media users make it seem.
At some point in life, we all need to slow down our social media activities, give our phones a break, get some productive work done and then tackle some real life issues seriously to get ahead in life and career.
