I am in the midst of a break from Meta again - following the energy of my last Substack on the February full moon;
This is also part of the experiment in extrapolating ever further from aspects of Meta that don’t work or do it for me, as per the article above. I thought it would be nice to share part of the prologue to my second book, a book I wrote five years ago, in 2019, which is proving to be evermore prophetic, with key patterns repeating for me personally, and us collectively.
This book was written in two months, in two sittings, six months apart. I didn’t think I was going to finish it, but like a bolt out of the blue I received very clear guidance during a meditation on a full moon to continue and by the next full moon, it was done. I felt like the world was speaking to me, alongside a very active spirit / writing guide in my right ear. I would get up at 5am (without an alarm), make a coffee/ tea and start writing as the words flowed through me. I knew astrologically that 2020 was due to be huge, self publishing in time for the Pluto Saturn conjunction of January 2020, which heralded the world changing forever.
So I now find it interesting that Meta went down this week, at a time where I am raising similar questions around my relationship to these platforms. It’s like the world is speaking loudly again, and it feels relevant to pull the book out and share excerpts with you over the coming moon cycle, and on this new moon in Pisces, my birthday moon.
I truly hope, as I have for a long time, that we can help each other develop a better relationship to these digital environments and platforms, if we are to continue to work or stay within them as we move through this decade.
Social Media For A New Age 2
The Prologue
I want to take you on a journey,
Through digital time and space...
To Social Media For A New Age,
Which is a kind and loving place,
Where we carefully consider,
What the Book of Face,
Is actually doing to us,
And the human race.
In my twenty years of working with social media, I have come to see the many ways it can be both good and bad for us. For society, for democracy and culture, for our relationships and businesses. For our health, mind, body and spirit.
Ethical social media users can steer conversations away from dark places and toward more productive and informative interaction. It is not simply a matter of ‘be good to others’: it is the ability to guide others and set standards that help, protect and encourage all sorts of voices.
University of Sydney; Dr Jonathon Hutchinson, Ethical Social Media MOOC.
All of these aspects add up to something much bigger than we can currently understand or see with our physical eyes. Facebook’s (**now META**) platforms are being used by the majority of online society to communicate on a daily basis, so I think we would benefit from caring more about what they are doing with us, our attention and our data.
As we look at the impact social media is having on our wellbeing, I will share my personal journey with you, as I realised that I was burnt out, disillusioned and addicted. I will be exploring our relationship to social media, particularly Facebook (Meta) and its platforms, where I predominantly work with my clients. I also think Facebook Inc. (Meta) has the biggest impact on digital society and our digital self, through the sheer power and influence of its platforms.
Being on social media can feel very overwhelming day in and day out. Busy. Bustling. Some people you know, some you don’t. Slide over an inspiring meme. Ooh look, a celebrity. Hop over some unsolicited advice. Side- step a preachy post. Get some advice on the moon phase. On business. On life. Ascension symptoms. Solar Flares. Then notice the ego is feeling something. Oh, it’s comparison. A smidge of envy. A dash of despair. Oh there’s someone or something that’s upset me popping up just over there. And... Now I want those shoes... And that skirt... And to be on that dreamy looking holiday. Dammit.
Imagine all of that going on inside our heads within a few moments of scrolling. Post after post, with the potential to spiral us into a social media vortex of doom, trying to grab our attention, tickling those emotional triggers. Post after post carrying an intention to get a reaction, a click, a Like or a sale. This is how we have been programmed to play, yes? Get Likes. Get follows. Get shared. Get engagement. Get comments. Get sales. Be seen. Be validated. That’s the game, the gamification of social media, built into the system to get our attention, to get our data and ultimately our dollars.
I don’t have all the answers, but I am willing to try and unpick some of the bad habits and social conditioning that has been encouraged within social media marketing over recent years. It has become a massive market place full of promotion, advertising and attention- seeking. When you add in all the sponsored posts we see, every three to four in our timeline (I counted them this morning), there are a lot of diverse hooks and energies coming up and at us.
We don’t see what all of this is doing to us, every time we tap in.
We zone it out,
We continue to scroll,
Energetically exhausting us all.
‘My friends and I are sick of being sold things all the time,’ said Ms. Fisher, a student at University of South Florida with 1,342 Instagram followers. ‘When you scroll through your Instagram feed, it’s one sponsored post after another.’
Source: Wall Street Journal, ‘Online Influencers Tell You What to Buy, Advertisers Wonder Who’s Listening’ by Suzanne Kapner and Sharon Terlep.
I know a lot of my friends, clients and contemporaries are feeling this same sense of enough! The push, push, push of so much marketing and promotion feels relentless within these communication channels, particularly when it relates to sensitive topics around healing, mental health and wellbeing. It made me question social media as a whole, my role in it, where I want to go and how I earn a living.
This path is taking me into new realms within social media, where we begin expanding our awareness of what social media is and what it can do. Where we see it from both a collective, global view to an individual human perspective. The macro and the micro.
What unfolded throughout 2018-19 is just the beginning of what I’m sure will be an eye-opening decade ahead. As we approach what is hailed astrologically as the great conjunction of January 2020, I have to trust how I feel, and act on it.
All around the globe, astrologers are waiting with bated breath, for the BIGGEST conjunction of our lifetime – the meeting of these two giants, Pluto and Saturn, in January 2020. Death meets Karma. The End meets the Timekeeper. They’re ready to collapse an entire timeline, an entire era, and release it through the South Node of the Moon, the point of endings, releasing and purging. We are entering a new era – an age of light.
Source: Facebook; Lilliana Letic, Astrologer & Shamanic Healer.
I have seen just how unhealthy my relationship to tech can be. As I write this I am still working on finding my balance. It will probably always be a work in progress. I want to use technology and social media in my life and my business, but not have it be my life. I’m sure many of you feel much the same.
I’m writing this for me, as much as for you.