The next BIG THING is NO social media

 

Have we become brainless copycats without creative ideas in Sales, Marketing, and Business over the last 6 years?

Nearly 10 years after social media and smartphones have become our new religion in our society I ask myself what is the way out of it or the next big thing to disconnect? Are we born only for business and clicking through social media streams all day long?

Are we on a highway to total control and observation by the big 4 super corporations, acting as brainless social media robots who work, buy things and post stupid content or copy postings just to have the feeling that we are creative, even if the content is worthless? Are we click robots?

Or might less internet, smartphone, and social media consumption be the solution for inner peace and a new age of creativity?

For the last 4 years, I think you have to disconnect yourself more and more from the crowd and social media, because it’s boring and not any new relevant content there. You have to sort out more and more, because the social media streams of LinkedIn, Facebook, and other platforms have become so generic that you can’t find really new things or news or it takes a lot of time, even if you use the AI-supported Feedly app for content and blogs.

So, what is the alternative?

I read now only medium, NZZ, NY Times, and Washington Post, and follow some creative people at the-dot.com and then I read only offline. Old comics, and paper books, because there is no interruption and no stupid content. Yes, Amazon helps me to find interesting books and some blogs or university websites, but not the daily local newspapers, which are also copycats in the DACH region.

Do we really believe that posting videos on LinkedIn brings us more business, promoting our generic free webinars and masterclasses?

In sales and marketing, 99% of the people copy the same bullshit content from each other for at least 4 years. All have learned the same way of doing business and social media, just via Instagram, LinkedIn, or Facebook ads or videos, instead of having not a generic product, but a product that is really inspiring and new so that everybody wants it as Apple has it or some other brands or craftsmen create.

The coaching, sales, marketing, and recruiting industry is in a big crisis, doing only the same generic things since the first smartphones and social media came up. We are just yelling at each other and producing more and more videos for tik-tok and LinkedIn, that no one is interested in or brings us only a short confirmation in our bubble.

Could this be our future? Do we not see, how boring it is inside the bubble? Really?

Will we do selfie videos again and again for the next 10 or 20 years? Waiting each year for a new iPhone release to have the better camera for 1.500 €?

We compare each other too much because people read the Instagram, Facebook, and Linkedin streams, seeing the top 2% of entrepreneurs and super high potentials doing business and how they spend their life. And this makes the normal person sick. 

I think many people live their life just waiting for the moment they win in a lottery or have the startup exit, and before this did not happen, they are not alive and enjoy nothing just their social media streams. 

Can we really still enjoy the little things? Nature, an evening with friends, a great dinner we have cooked, or a good book without being interrupted by the smartphone every 10 minutes?

It’s strange that we have the rule at home for 1 year now(even with the grandparents!), when friends visit us for dinner, that everybody has to put his/her smartphone into a box that will be closed and put into the middle of the table or on a sideboard, to have 2-3 hours of old school dinner and conversation without having people on their smartphones in between. Try it out and you discover the real smartphone junkies in your family.

Even if I use a lot of collaboration, business tools, and databases online for my job, I try to have more and more offline time. I have turned off all my smartphone notifications, only the ringtone for calls works. So if you really want to talk to me or have something important, then call me. 

Messages and emails I read 2-3 times per day.

Streams I comment 1-2 times per day for 5 minutes because it’s everywhere no relevant content and makes me angrier…

LinkedIn is my address book, nothing more. Ok, yes, some videos and blog posts I put there too sometimes for you. ;-)

But I ask myself how will we work in 5 or 10 years? Will we have an internet connection planted into our brains or will we be totally disconnected because we are sick of this and want our old lives back?

Maybe there will be an old school elite of intellectuals, a parallel society, that works with methods of the 1960-1999 years?

Yes, you have to afford it yourself, to be disconnected from social media and the internet during these times, but who is always available belongs to the staff as you might know ;-).

Make yourself scarce and you see, who are your real friends and business partners. All the others are just followers without any impact or benefit.

Try to come down and relax, not being a person driven by social media and always available.

This needs courage, but don’t forget, human mankind exists for several thousands of years, with friendship and business, and not since the birth of smartphones and Facebook 15 years ago.