I love social media. The concept, I mean. The idea that we can be connected to family, friends and interesting people all over the world is a wonderful thing. But man do I hate the way so much of social media actually works. Worse yet, much of the stuff I hate (gross, self-serving, manipulative, virtue signaling BS) “works.” In the sense that it garners a lot of engagement, as defined by the social media companies (they’re clever, huh). I would like to see our social spaces filled with more honesty, integrity and originality. From people whose brains have not been bent into the the one-size-fits-all approach of the guru class. For good or ill, social has effectively become “the world”. It’s the way we communicate, share stories, learn, etc. It’s a big deal. And it’s not going anywhere. We should fight the powers that be to make their platforms less dreadful and less likely to incentivize awful behavior, but in the meantime, we can fight our base instincts, and try to bring some pockets of joy to the cesspool. On LinkedIn, I find joy from a number of sources, and would like to call out some of my favorites: George, Mark, Sara, Paul, Ryan, Bob, Kathy, Jocelyn, Paul Note that most of these folks are not “joyful” in their style. They’re not vomiting sunshine and rainbows into our feeds. They are truth tellers, each in their own way. Some more optimistic, others delightfully crabby. But all of them are real, and provide insights that are both interesting and useful. Oh, and they’re all selling something btw. But they manage to do it without creeping in our DMs or insulting our intelligence. No, they do it by following a pretty simple rule: they say something interesting, in a way that feels true to who they are and relevant to you and me. This is the model all of us (including brands) should follow. But sadly, too many folks feel the need to mimic the work of half-witted LinkedIn “stars” who poison our culture with postage stamp wisdom that any four-year-old could serve up—but with way more personality and charm. We are not living up to our potential as businesspeople if we travel further down that rabbit hole. We’re settling for unoriginality and mediocrity. We’re glazing our brains with indifference. And we are trapping ourselves in a perpetual cycle of GIGO. Thankfully, some folks are working hard to break that cycle. And I’m doing my best to live by their example, with the occasional assist from my cats.
