Is Social Media A Waste of Time

There are distinct periods in my life when i didn't use social media at all. From birth to 18 i had never even heard of Facebook. I distinctly remember getting Facebook because I wanted to see what my college roommates looked like and they had it. The new generation seems to think FB is old news and are really into SnapChat, which i just can't get into in my late twenties. Hell I barely used a computer until college. I was one of those rare college students who was too poor to have a laptop, so that meant i spent my life at the library. 

Now I seem to sit in front of the computer all day and it is sad. I tell myself I am building a platform, but i think the reality is I am leaving a trail of things to be embarrassed about. I am wasting my time. I have no life.  I once had an editor tell me they wouldn't publish my book until i built a bigger platform and i really felt FUCK, because I suck at social media. 

One: I think i am too serious for social media. I don't understand the comical balance of being brainy and quirky. My friends and family never seem to comment on what I post. It's probably because I don't take the time to comment on what they post either. I get sick of seeing pictures of peoples dinner and lunches and puppies. Social Media is a lot of the same stuff over and over again. I love Angelina and Brad, but how many times do they need to run a story about her and Brad Breaking up. It's like people have nothing to report. Nobody is interesting anymore and honestly content isn't fresh. It's the same everyday. I miss the real world.

When I was in China I simply wasn't using Facebook or Twitter because most American websites are blocked, and guess what it was great. I didn't miss it at all. Life went on around me. In many ways my life was fuller and more vibrant and I wasn't leaving status updates about it. How often do we post about the mundane and why? Are we living in a vanity culture, of course we are and as a young entrepreneur, someone who wants to work for myself i  have been sucked into self publishing thinking i will catch my big break. 

Successful people hire teams to handle their social media accounts. It's time consuming to always be online and prevents us from living life to the fullest. The bottom line is i am not making any money off social media, so why do I let it take up so much of my time. Guess, what in boot-camp we didn't tweet either. I guess, the more i have a life, the more i have things to do, the less i use social media. The less i have a life, the less i have things to do, the more i use social media. Sometimes I will really think writing content for someone else's website is important, but it's not. It's not leading to paid gigs. I am just a pawn. I am not making money and most of the time my articles barely have any hits. When i was doing good i was just out in the world living. 

Let me know what you guys think about the pros and cons of social media and if it has benefited you or not.