There is only so much time in a day - and quite a few things to do.  I've slowly been peeling back anything I've been doing and seeing what things seem to steal time away from me, what things I do just because of my ego or what I'm “supposed” to do and at what things I really want to accomplish with my time on this spinning ball of mud, rock and water.  As a Gen-Xer, I'm not at the beginning of my journey and I also work a full time job besides pushing forward with my creative music endeavors.  Every book or blog I've read has said that social media is incredibly important for a musician - even to get numbers up to get gigs.  We are all content providers now and content is king.  And, that is probably true.  Especially for a young Gen Zer trying to gather an audience and make a life within a creative field.  Every time I've read this advice something has felt off.  I've posted somewhat frequently than infrequently.  I admit I do not like feeling tethered to a social media account and a daily need to prime the pump with more content.  That can simply be that I grew up pre-Internet and found music in my early teens in a totally different manner.  However, I started to consider another ramification…

  I like drinking soda.  What?  What does this have to do with social media?  Stay with me.  When I was an Infantry soldier serving in Iraq in a bygone era of my life, I did not crave a cold beer after another hot, sweaty mission.  I craved a cold Coca-Cola.  It is, in fact, more of an addiction than something I enjoy now and again.  I do not buy soda because it is gone within days.  Over time, it has been bad for my health, my digestion and when paired with caffeine - my sleep.  I'm not a once a week can or bottle guy.  I have to quit it with no room for once in awhile because it has always devolved back into an addiction.  While most of my social media accounts have been music related and focused on me performing, writing or attending other music events that has not been the biggest issue.  I become a consumer - a mindless scroller - every time I put the apps back on my phone.  Sometimes, I'll go a few days just checking fellow musicians and giving feedback but then one random video turns into 30 minutes or more of random videos.  All the while, I feel stressed that I am not devoting enough time to getting better on my instruments, writing more material or finishing up my studio project (now an update on THAT is another post all together).  So I spend more effort on feeding the algorithm with my attention than I even do creating content to feed the algorithm to get eyes on me.  While this weird cycle continues, my creative output suffers.

  I trick myself into keeping the accounts because I need to keep that audience warm when I release material.  Yet, I have no time to work on the material because I just lost an hour on funny animal videos.  So, I looked back on my habits in life when I've been my best creatively, physically, intellectually and with the most focus.  All of those had a decent element of discipline and a movement of dropping “junk food” habits - like watching television, actual junk food or something similar.  The answer became crystal clear - I have to quit social media not because of just a dislike of the approach a company makes to their platform or because I refuse to be considered a “content provider” as opposed to a creative musician.  I have to quit because I'm addicted and it actively destroys my ability to focus and steals my scant time to create.  So, I'm going big - if a dramatic post like this wasn't already an indicator.  I am going to delete my social accounts.  Not just pause them - but delete.  I will still run ads on any of the platforms with a more defined account when the time comes to promote material or bigger shows.  However, for now, I'll invest on some great looking poster/flyers for any live gigs, word-of-mouth and spending more time making original music.  It will feel wrong to ignore all the advice but it feels worse to not be my best.  

I will start to write a monthly newsletter for those interested and I plan on weekly blogs here.  Getting back to longer form “content” feels right (I resisted the temptation to use write as a pun).  Sign-up for the newsletter if you are interested and anyone can contact me via this website's contact page.  This feels right to me - this feels true to my punk rock roots.  

thank you for reading,

ian