So many fairy tales start with a once upon a time and end with a happily ever after. That must make this post the fairy tale of Mud, Pies and Pins on social media.
Once upon a time I started a blog. I shared, you commented, we all related. And then Instagram took over. At first, I thought I would post there but also keep the blog going. But little by little the blog writing stopped and alI my posts went on Instagram. The conversations continued there, until they didn’t.
Over time Instagram changed. There were more ads, it was harder to see the posts from those your followed unless you actively searched for them, it became a mirror TikTok as everyone felt the need to post reels instead of simple images. Instead of stopping at the images and reading the text you now had to pause and watch and wait and watch. And so, I’d scroll on by and scroll and scroll and walk away. I don’t have time for watching reels, especially when so much of the content in them is the same as what was often just shared in those quick to look at, easy to read about single images of the past. And I found I was losing interest in sharing myself. My posts were getting lost among the reels and adverts.
Then came the day when a cross stitching group popped up on facebook and I started browsing there. And then I started sharing a little as I was cross stitching again. There are no ads. There are no reels. There’s just cross stitching and commenting.
Every now and again I pop back to Instagram. There are so many people I miss and so much I miss seeing. I make the odd post on whatever I happen to be working on that day. It could be any hand craft. I check the feeds of those crafty friends I miss, I see what they have been doing, I add a few likes and comments and then browse to see what else I am missing. And then I leave again as the ads and reels get frustrating.
And so it continues. I do the tours of social media jumping from app to app and feed to feed. I post here and comment there. But, at the end of the day I know that my happily ever after is not there. It is in my hands. It is whatever I am working on and the joy I get from making. And so I will keep on making and keep on sharing bits here there and everywhere. And that is happily every after enough for me.
