I'm glad my kids are grown, because if they weren't, I would have to take the time to tell them how we survived without social media...really, much media of any kind. We had television...with 4 channels. Period. No remote controls...we got our asses out of the chairs to change the channels. Radio stations were A.M. Phones were attached to the wall and your finger had to spin with the dial to make a call. Only in the 70's, did push-button phones become "en vogue". They did, in fact, make it so much easier to win prizes from the local radio station (by now F.M.) when they asked for the 35th caller to get a prize! But, I digress.
Let me tell you about how it was...back in the day. When someone says "back in the day" be prepared...they mean waaaaaaaay back in the day.
So, let's go back to a time that was simpler. We rode our bikes everywhere. That took us as far as the local five and dime. It was there we could buy anything from make-up to clothes to a hamster. Yes, Grant's was a full-service five and dime. And we bought lip gloss...without any advice from a social influencer. SAY WHAAAAAT???? Yes, pre-dawn, we bought 5 lip glosses in little plastic containers for $1.00. Quite a deal, even for those days. The same held true for our frosty eyeshadow palette; pastel green, blue, purple, white and brown. For the price of $2.00, we were set for our 8th grade year. We could get our pastries from the local bakery on that trip, and if we were careful, we could walk our bikes across the street to McDonalds for lunch.
There was no Sephora or Ulta. No, we were left to our own devices. Our mothers wore Max Factor and Maybelline. Yes, my mother, who was married to a doctor, wore what she could get at the local drugstore.** It wasn't until she was in her 50's that her make-up became Estee Lauder, and only (I might add) because they had great Christmas gift sets. You could get everything for quite literally $35.00 and the price of a 3 pack of Estee Lauder Youth Dew soap (which smelled divine). She washed her face and body with the same soap -- Dove. And that never, EVER changed. And her choice was later confirmed by her dermatologist who said that it was a great moisturizing soap.*
We didn't have bottled water or fancy water bottles in which to tote our water. No, we drank it out of the tap; in either a metal or plastic glass. And to my mother's dying day, she said that a glass of ice water (from the tap) was the most delicious thing ever! (By that time, we had graduated to real glassware).
Our moms bought our clothes from Robert Hall for school. If we were tres chic, we went to Glik's or J.C. Penney. That really came as we got older, say 6th or 7th grade, when looking good mattered. Then, one day, something magical happened...We were able to ride the bus to downtown. What a treat that was! We got to shop at little boutiques such as Horse Feathers, which had the trendiest clothes ever. There was also your local head shop for all your black light poster needs (and I suspect other needs; however, I never asked). And of course, Schoeffler's pharmacy where we bought lunch and walked back to Kresge's -- a much larger five and dime, with more goodies than you had money to spend or catch the bus, and go home. If you got to spend your Saturday riding the bus downtown and shopping with your pals, life was good!
So, as social media drives advertising today, it didn't always. We could have never imagined what exists today; internet, social media, influencers? As I watch people sell things online, I am intrigued and drained all at the same time. It is not particularly fun to look at...On the other hand, a social media presence is what people strive for today. If you have followers, you are making bank. So, where do we draw the line?
For me, I got off of social media for a month in order to determine what I wanted...not what others thought I should want. I found out some valuable things.
1. I am exactly where I should be...working with special needs children.
2. I needed to finish my master's degree in educational administration. God called me to it, yet in a brief lapse of listening to others, I stopped going to school. I re-enrolled this spring, the first of my last 4 classes and a practicum.
3. I learned more about trauma and its insidious effects than I probably wanted to. I spent time reading and learning how this thing controls your brain through ptsd, anxiety, etc. And it can be helped(!) through yoga and meditation. I am enrolled this summer in a course for educators to help heal trauma through these means. I will be a certified yoga instructor and a facilitator for social-emotional learning. And anyone who thinks we haven't all suffered some sort of trauma as the result of the pandemic is fooling themselves. The fallout will come...give it time.
4. I also learned I lived the greater part of my life with a sociopathic narcissist, and I am lucky to be alive.
So, if you think social media is all that. and having a huge following is the be-all-end-all, please reconsider. Our life should not be filled with buying things and looking for the next best business. Take some time and explore your inner self...or not. The choice is yours.
*I still use Dove soap
**I do not buy drugstore make-up...too many hands have been in them!
