Social Media, Assumptions, and "To What End?"

Mobile:

Pride

On finding clarity

“Let me see if I’ve got this right,” said blue hamster, looking up through the bars.

“If I keep running, I will never get ahead?”

Black cat smiled, “Now, we’re getting somewhere, friend. Next, we’ll talk about the cage.”

Thoughts while making...

The conversation goes like this:

Person: “What are you doing now that you’re not making mobiles?”

Me, scratching my head: “Um, what do you mean?”

Person: “Well, I don’t see you posting on Instagram much anymore…”

I stare at the message.

“I’m still not sure I understand what you mean,” I respond.

“You’re not posting much,” they say, “so you’re not doing mobiles anymore, right?”

Assumptions are funny beasts, aren’t they?

This story, however, isn’t about assumptions.

It’s about tools.

Yes, tools.

Merriam Webster defines a *tool* in this way:

\ ˈtül \ n. any instrument or simple piece of equipment that you hold in your hands and use to do a particular kind of work or in the practice of a vocation or profession.

An alt definition: a means to an end.

To confuse the tool for the work seems an interesting new challenge of our times. Yet confusing the means for the end is not.

“I’m – literally – busier than ever making mobiles,” I humbly respond.

Person: “Then, why aren’t you posting about it?”

Me, scratching my head again.

Instagram is an incredible tool. It’s connected me with amazing people around the world; people I otherwise would’ve likely never met, been inspired by.

It’s offered me a place to introduce you to my imaginary animal friends, to share stories that (I hope) cause you to pause here and there.

It has also, of course, served as a terrific marketing tool for my art.

However, to be caged by the notion that running the wheel is the only way leaves me wondering, as my wise @arabellarabella likes to ask, “to what end?”

In “social media” as in life, navigating personal and professional, work and tool, is a challenge *and* opportunity for us all: one in which we get to define how, when, where, and what.

Where’s one place you can consider what wheels you’re running on today and to what end?