Mindful Content: The Social Media Smorgasbord

By Marcus Coates, @homeinpalma, 25th December 2020

Blog No. 11

What did the Swedish ever do for us?

Well, quite a lot, it turns out. For starters, they gave us two of life's healthiest inventions: the pickled herring - which is known to be one of the richest sources of omega-3 fatty acids in the world. And they gave us the sauna: a place to sweat out all the excess brine after you've scoffed a plateful of herrings. But just in case you want to accuse the Swedish of being too puritanical – you know, just a bunch of tall, healthy do-gooders with beautiful skin, and an excellent education and health system – then I'm here to remind you, they also invented the smorgasbord.

And what is a smorgasbord?

Well, a quick definition would be that it's an excessive range of hot and cold dishes without rhyme or reason – just lots and lots of foodstuffs placed on a large table. It's a feast of oddities, the editable version of an experimental jazz-electro-slam-poetry gathering. To some people – the Swedish, for instance – a smorgasbord is mighty appealing; however, I see two distinct issues with this culinary experience: overload and underload.

The overload

Let's take a look at this first scenario. You grab a plate from the stack and approach the countless displays of food, only to feel compelled to overload your plate with a variety of disparate items. A pickled herring here, a piece of stewed lamb there, a bit of smelly French cheese nestled on top, a garlic mushroom on the side, a poached egg for good measure. All of a sudden, your meal is hideous: a Frankenstein's monster of a lunch stares back at you. Your dinner acquaintances gasp in horror and all but call you a philistine as you sit back at the table and prepare to gorge through a terrible combo. And you know for sure – not that it stops you at the time – that you will soon be suffering nausea and possibly much worse, later that very evening. But hey, it's a smorgasbord, so tuck in, you tell yourself.

The underload

The other alternative is just as bad. You approach the smorgasbord and become like the proverbial rabbit in the headlights. You stand frozen amidst the innumerable display counters and are too scared to put anything at all on your plate. You bypass the pickled herring, meatballs, crispbread, brown cabbage or flygande Jakob (a Swedish casserole made with chicken, chillis and banana, in case you were wondering). The result being that you scurry back to your table with a conservative amount of macaroni cheese on the corner of your plate, and spend the rest of the meal watching your neighbours shove colossal amounts of protein down their gullets, whilst cursing under your breath that you overpaid for a buffet.

A tenuous simile

And why am I concerned about the smorgasbord? Well, it occurred to me that a tenuous simile would be that social media is akin to the smorgasbord. In other words, there's an extensive and eclectic range on offer: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, LinkedIn, Twitter, Youtube, Snapchat - and that's just the more prominent players. So where does one start when approaching? And how much should one consume?

In for a penny, in for a pound

Well, after years of being a steadfast Luddite and studiously avoiding all social media interaction (for vague and barely defined fears of personal information leak and big brother watching), I decided to dive straight into the social media buffet by opening multiple accounts across all platforms. In for a penny, in for a pound, is what I say!

But what I've found out – three months in - is that it's hard work communicating across multiple platforms. After uploading my daily holiday snap to Facebook, putting a pithy quote on Instagram, saying a few witty comments on Twitter, informing people on LinkedIn about a conference I heard about, recording a video of me dancing and falling over for Youtube and editing it down to twenty seconds for TikTok, there was barely time left to fit in a work, eating or sleeping. Even after giving up showering, I still had little time left in the day.

I began laying awake at night wondering if I'd commented on enough of other peoples platforms and 'liked' their witty comments, holiday snaps, etc. etc. Would they follow me? Should I follow them? Do I retweet? Smily face, hand clap or thumbs up? The social media smorgasbord was causing me severe indigestion.

Luckily, after leaving the house for a walk whilst waiting for my laptop battery to recharge, I was struck with the following thought: "Why do I suddenly care if a 1,000 strangers like my ramblings or my selfie in the garden standing next to an Ikea BBQ set? Why am I losing sleep over which Gif to select and not washing anymore?

The dilemma

Now, I know I could hire someone to do my social media for me – a professional company or a tech-savvy nephew looking for a fast buck – but then why did I want to engage in the first place? I know marketers will tell me that having a social media presence is valuable for future sales, but honestly, so is bathing and interacting with humans in the flesh. "Sorry honey, I'll be right with you after I've made this Youtube video of me unpacking my new pants and jotted down a couple of quotes about staying positive and hugging trees daily."

For what it's worth

I've now decided to drop most of my platforms and keep one or two active. I'm going to keep Twitter because It's excellent for riffing with cool people, and I'll maintain my LinkedIn profile because, who knows, I might need another job one day. As for the rest, I'll make the occasional post on Facebook and use the gained time to sleep and shower more. At least people won't avoid me as much in the office if I smell good.

Shazam! And just like a seasoned buffet-diner who's stretched their waistband one time too many with un-nameable delicacies, I've finally learnt that just because it's all in front of you, it doesn't mean you have to take some of everything. Choose your favourites, have an occasional dabble with the unknown, go wild sometimes and grab a pickled herring or two – there full of omega-3, as you know. And that way, you won't give yourself indigestion or feel like you didn't get your money's worth. And if all else fails, do like the Swedish: take a sauna and plot your next outing to the smorgasbord.

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All images from Unsplash: 1, Huum (sauna), 2, Tim Cooper (smorgasbord), 3, Ravi Sharma (Twitter)