Dear friend:
I don’t want to read your status updates anymore. It’s not because I don’t think you’re brilliant. It’s because I do.
I want to hear what you have to say. Not what 20 of your most distant acquaintances think about it. I want to hear you.
I don’t want you to feel limited by 140 characters.
Try 140 words instead. It’s brief enough that I can’t ignore you. It’s long enough that you can tell me a story I’ll remember.
I don’t want you to feel forced into taking on a casual voice when you want to express thoughts that aren’t casual.
When you have something to say that comes up from inside your bones, I want it to strike me me like a stand-alone expression of your soul. (When you type it out onto social media the world considers it crass over-sharing. I hate to admit that I do too.)
So please: when you have something meaningful to say, I want you to get off of Facebook and say it. Create your own web page. (Or better yet, a physical work of art.) Pick up a phone and remember what it’s like to live without barriers. (Or at least, less glaring ones.)
How can you you use social media instead? Use it to tell me what you had for breakfast.
I know that for years people have told you not to. But forget that. You’re allowed. (Anyone who doesn’t wonder how Einstein took his eggs lacks imagination.)
But please: don’t use social media to tell me something meaningful. (It will be cheap, and you won’t own what you say. Literally and legally.)
Instead, use social media to link me in to something meaningful.
The next time you have something brilliant to say on social media, stop.
Save it. Turn it into art. Then, you can use social media to tell me about it.