Sometimes, I get really bloody fed up of creating content. It often takes longer to set up cameras, tripods, and get the lighting right than it does to do the actual thing I’m filming. Add in lighting adjustments, placements, close-ups, voiceovers, positioning and sound, together with editing, thumbnail designing, caption writing and uploading and I’ve got an accumulation of a few hours for a 30-second video that may or may not be seen, depending on what social media is favouring that day. All of this is to be done before being “active” on all the platforms that I’m posting on to ensure those dreaded algorithms actually push my content to you, the people who consciously follow my accounts because you like to see my posts, but will only see them if I do all of the above. And let’s not even mention the struggle to reach a new and wider audience to get out of this echo chamber, now that things like hashtags have become near-on obsolete.
Sometimes I just want to do the thing, because I want to do it, and I don’t want to feel the energy-drain of the set up, visual perfection and edit. I just want to do it. Because that is the whole point of the content that I create – to encourage each one of you to explore nature without distraction, to look for wildlife without technology, to marvel at the beauty of bright beetles and ants working as a team, to forage and create food and medicine from plants that enhance our wellbeing and mental health, to do all of these things without the distraction of devices that take our entire being from a sense of presence to a sense of overload and overactivity in every aspect our selves – our body, mind and soul.
So now I am stuck in a limbo of thoughts, unable to decide and truly understand whether my content is in fact a little contradictory. Always at its essence is the sentiment of getting away from screens (a life we were never designed to live) and reconnecting with nature, yet I am having to be on several screens to develop this content, taking up hours of precious time for a 30-second reel, uploading it at a time when Instagram tells me that the majority of my audience are actively scrolling, and delivering that content to you in a way that means you will have to be checking your screens to see the videos that highlight the wonderful things that you could be doing to get away from social media.
But, what is the alternative? To not share it, not post these things and hope that you, and I, will find a way back to nature ourselves? I don’t think that will happen, not for many years anyway. Because it’s too ingrained in our lives right now. It’s a social norm.
The answer to this is something I’ve been struggling with for a while, and has created a real disengagement with posting on social media, despite creating and learning new things that I would love to share with you, yet I am no closer to the closure of this chapter of understanding. To knowing how to move forwards in a productive and healthy way.
I want to know what you think. What is the answer here? This isn’t rhetorical, let me know, I’d love your thoughts (even though this question is yet again asking you to be on your screens for longer – you see the circles here?).
According to Jess 