As a millennial I should be semi good at social media and the digital world. I’m not. That might sound weird for someone that has an online business. But I first and foremost consider myself a writer. I have not hacked Instagram. I don’t have TikTok. I hardly ever watch anything on YouTube. I’m don’t have Facebook on my phone. I’m sure there are many other social media platforms out there I don’t even know of.
I have Instagram. I love listening to podcasts. I love running an online business. Basically, what it means is that I work remotely and the vast majority of my meetings or online. Let’s get one thing straight, I’m not coding anything over here. I can’t even maintain my own website. I can do exactly two things on my website: post blog posts and edit the text.
I have never been a social media butterfly. I was extremely slow to get on social media. My first impulse is to reject anything related to AI. I’m an old soul in an extremely digital world. I don’t understand Reels (and now apparently, there’s something called Threads? Please tell me I’m not the only 29 year old that’s totally lost…).
I also don’t like spending time on my phone. I don’t enjoy scrolling through social media. I hate reading the news on my phone (the only way I genuinely like reading the news is by reading an old fashioned newspaper). I don’t like texting. I prefer meeting up in real life, and if that’s not possible, then please call me. I do NOT enjoy texting. Hence, why I sometimes take weeks to get back to people. Not because I don’t care, but because I hate being on my phone that much.
Sure, I post and scroll on Instagram sometimes. I think Instagram is a great place for travel tips. I think it’s awesome for book recommendations and generally just tips and tricks. And who doesn’t like a good meme? Or a funny panda video. As I said, I also post on Instagram myself. Admittedly, not that consistently and my pictures aren’t very good… But, oh well! So, my point is, I do think social media has a time and a place. But I don’t think spending hours on social media or a phone in general is very good.
I often feel a bit left behind in the world. The world moves a little bit too fast for me. Before I get a chance to wrap my head around a new digital thing, the world has already moved on to the next. But I don’t think I would change anything, even if I could. I named this series Look Up because I believe that life becomes so much richer and fuller when we look up from our devices. When we put our phones away when we’re with friends and family. When we just take a moment to stop and marvel at the life that has been given to us.
So yeah, I might be a millennial dinosaur that’s always 10 steps behind when it comes to digital stuff, AI and social media. But I’m okay with that. I’m okay with being the person that walks in nature without my phone, music or anything. I’m okay with being the person that prefers books over movies. I’m okay with being almost embarrassingly slow to reply to people. Because I am living my life. I’m present. I am here.
So, to all the people out there that also feel like millennial dinosaurs, I see you and you are not alone. In fact, I think there are more of us than most of us think. We are old souls in a very modern world, and I think that’s a beautiful thing. I think the world needs us to balance it all up. So if you are an old soul, and you sometimes feel left behind in this everchanging world, embrace it, and know that you are not alone.
