When did we lose the passion?
It’s been well over 10 years since I fell randomly into the social media space. In a time when people were getting onto Facebook, others had just joined Twitter and YouTube had some best random hit videos. When blogs and websites were breaking South African perspectives. It was a time when you were self-taught, learning this new, incredible world. The pioneers, the bloggers, the up-and-comers, the ‘gurus’ and ‘ninjas’ were all born during this time. A time of passion, excitement, hunger, and want.
And somehow along the way…
We’ve lost that passion and hunger! The fire!
Photo by Cullan Smith on Unsplash
We’ve built monuments on the wild web that were beacons to the youngsters and those not even old enough to know how to use it. Somehow we’ve not been able to share the passion and the excitement. To help the next generation be hungry for more. We’ve stopped teaching, breaking down barriers and giving knowledge freely.
We’ve built a new generation of community managers, social managers, social media content writers, social media managers, who are not passionate about what they do. Who have become robots, plodding along and not making magic happen.
Is it because we have lost some of that passion? We’ve become so entrenched in the norm, that we’re not finding ways to grow excitement with the next generation? Has our dis-interest led to theirs?
Have we stopped teaching and training, yet want them to be able to walk in and be pros at the job we believe they should know. Do we believe this, because they have grown up knowing social media, while we had to learn to crawl and walk our way through it?
How do we show them that what they do in their personal capacities (disclaimer: to an extent), can be replicated in the work they do for brands and businesses? This is a generation that believes in doing and being… how does this translate into work and grabbing the proverbial bulls by the horns?
Where have we lost our passion?
This has been driving me crazy. What have I not been able to do to help the future generations be passionate and believe in the work that the social teams offer to businesses and brands?
I have more questions than I have answers. But asking the questions means I can look and seek the answers.
Photo by Austin Chan on Unsplash
*Title image: Photo by Louis Smit on Unsplash
Everyone changes over time. We mature, grow into different lives – many times with added responsibilities – and there’s no longer much space for what we were once passionate about. It gets replaced, or at best – minimised – into a little compartment in what’s become our new lives. You were one of the bloggers I followed way back at the beginning of my blogging journey (2006), and if I look at the community we had then vs now, barely anyone seems to have been able to stay in the blogosphere. I barely hung on through a pretty lean period, but still managed to hang in there.
As I say, life progresses and with it, we move along. Because Facebook and the like are so much more convenient and bite sized, that’s become the easier route to maintain some of those connections – but for the most part, the substance and passion of yesteryear is gone. At least that’s how I feel.