Social media is awesome. We’re able to stay in contact with old high school friends, make new friends through different groups, and discover new things we’d never know about before.
I’ve been able to contact some amazing people through social media. Social media has made my life better… in some respects.
Photo by Rahul Chakraborty
In others, social media is a dangerous pit you can easily be sucked into.
Chasing The Wrong Things
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram… these social media platforms (along with others) have features to help you know how many people have liked, shared, and loved your posts.
Seeing these social media stats are nice. They tell you people are interacting with what you’re putting out. They tell you people like your content.
Even WordPress websites have social media tracking features. You can tell how many people have tweeted or shared your articles. Once again, this is nice. You can see what is happening with your content.
But…
There’s the dark side.
You can easily get caught in the trap of chasing the wrong things. You can begin to see likes, shares, and retweets as a sort of status symbol.
It is easy to go “Man! Look at that. My tweet was retweeted 3,428 times. One of those retweets was by Craig Groeschel!” Then the next time you tweet… Chirp, chirp… Crickets.
You feel down and out. You feel no one cares about your content despite your previous win.
Social media can bring you up and down quickly. It can make you focus on the wrong metrics by which to judge your success.
Chasing likes, tweets, retweets, and more are not the metrics you need to chase. These are but vanity metrics. They don’t matter in the long run.
Instead, I say let us chase the right things.
Chase The Right Things
What are the right things? The right things are the things that truly matter in life or to you.
For me, I’ve really contemplated what matters to me. I want to chase the right things. I think I’ve narrowed down my list of the right things to chase.
To chase the right things to me means chasing after:
- God – First and foremost, I want to chase after the creator of the universe. I want to make sure my heart is right and I am focused on Him. Without Him, we are nothing.
- Family – Second, I want to chase after relationships with my family members. My brothers and sisters, my parents, my cousins, and down the line. Family matters. They deserve to be a priority in our lives.
- Worthy impact – I want to make a difference in the world. That’s why I am a youth leader. It’s why I write my blog. It’s why I build relationships. I want to make a lasting and worthy impact on the world.
- The unwanted – This may seem like an odd thing to chase after but hear me out. I think we need to chase after the unwanted and discarded. I want these people to know they are valued and cherished. That they matter as much as the most successful CEO or entrepreneur. Even the unwanted has value. If I have the ability to show them they are valuable, I want to show them.
- True change – There’s temporary change. This happens when someone catches hold of something but then loses interest in it. The result is a brief flash in the pan. I don’t want that, for myself or for you. I want to help bring about true change.
Chasing after the wrong things is easy. You can quickly see the stats of likes, shares, retweets. The wrong things are often the easiest to measure. Let’s stop chasing after the wrong things.
To chase after what truly matters, that takes discernment. It takes self-control. And it means dying to our selfish desires.
Be a leader who is chasing after what truly matters. Give up the cheap wins. Go for the gold.
Question: What wrong things have you chased after? What made you decide to chase after something better? Share your story in the comments below.
Please note: I reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive or off-topic.