Advertisemen
Please help! Intense fear of social media with dreams of building a career in digital marketing!
https://ift.tt/eA8V8J
I am almost 27 years old and I have an intense fear of social media. It is hindering my progression in life in so many ways. I really just need honest advice from people like you all who work in the field and who may have seen this in other people.
I wasn’t always this way.
Back when MySpace was popular I absolutely loved it. I would join trains to gain friends fast and had over 6000, which was a lot back then. I started my own follower train group and learned how to use photoshop. I even started playing around with my layouts to customize the visibility of certain things, and that’s how I learned how to code in html and css. To this day I am really good at it. I currently have a private codepen account with no picture where I’ve amassed over 600 followers because of the css images I make for fun.
During the MySpace era I went through an intense period of being bullied in school over silly high school nonsense. My closest friends all decided to start making fun of me and spread terrible rumors about me. It really traumatized me because I was already the new kid at this school to begin with. Besides going to school, I stopped going outside completely. I lived in the same neighborhood as all of these kids and didn’t even want to run into them because I knew they would harass me. I spent time in various anonymous forums online instead. Think of sites like Habbo Hotel and you’ll get the idea. I didn’t have any other friends so I figured I’ll just make some online to keep me busy. I spent the remainder of the school year and the summer in the house until we moved to a different city nearby for unrelated reasons.
Fast forward to when MySpace died out and everyone migrated to facebook. I was terrified of getting on Facebook because l was afraid of being seen and bullied again by people I knew. I avoided the platform altogether and joined tumblr instead, where I could once again be anonymous and enjoy social media in private. I gained over 30,000 followers on there and really enjoyed the creative aspect of running a blog. People genuinely seemed to like reading what I had to say about different things and I loved connecting with people in that way. I also just really enjoyed filling my blog with pictures and music that I liked.
Eventually tumblr died just like MySpace(I know it’s not actually dead but it’s just not what it once was), so I deleted my blog. To this day I regret not funneling those people to an Instagram account and growing it. A lot of the people I used to follow during that time did that exact thing and now they’re able to make a living completely off of Instagram and sponsored posts. All I have had since then is a Snapchat that I use to communicate with a few close friends and distance relatives.
During college we were all encouraged to make a LinkedIn but I could not bring myself to make an account because it required me to be seen. I was lucky to secure my job after college through indeed so i didn’t have to use it. Now that I’m ready to leave the company and purpose a career in digital marketing im running into trouble with being taken seriously. I of course have no social media accounts of my own, yet I’m expecting people to give me an interview for an industry where having social media is extremely important. It’s just not going to work.
It’s either I finally figure out how to get over my fear of being seen and get over the fact that people bullied me, or I give up on my dream to move to a booming city with plenty of opportunity, and stick with my boring career in finance.
This has effected more than just my self esteem and career options. I am also having a hard time dating, since most people are on some sort of a dating app now and meet that way.
The funny part is everyone that I’m really close to would be shocked if they knew how scared I am of being on social media. I’m known as the funny, confident, and outgoing friend. I can mingle and talk with others just fine in person. I’m very social in real life, but soon as it’s time to do something that requires me to have an online presence my anxiety creeps back. I always find a way around. I’ve met so many cool people who would try to exchange social media handles with me to keep in touch and that’s when I have to explain I don’t have any accounts.
If anyone has any suggestions for me I would be so grateful. I recognize that all of this sounds ridiculous coming from someone who is nearing 30 years old but this is where I’m at and i just want to get past this.
[link] [comments]
https://ift.tt/1ODA6gd
February 02, 2020 at 01:25PM