Marketing Solutions for Highly Skilled Professionals

The internet and the way we socialize within and around it is a complicated topic that seldom gets the nuanced review it deserves. As a Millennial with Gen Z and Gen Alpha kids, I’ve had the unique pleasure and headache of navigating a virtual social life and trying to help my kids safely create their own while trying to balance our online lives with in person socialization. 

“The kids and hubby all got home late last night after a weekend of camping and hiking at 9k feet (I tried to participate. Almost passed out from walking to the john and [redacted] on out of there).
This morning I wanted them to sleep but also had work to do so I gathered my coffee apparatus and snuck into the Wyoming house’s office.
Except I forgot to bring a mug. Hence, Monday Coffee.” 7-25-22

A few simple rules can go a long way to helping online fun nourish and uplift us without weighing us down, putting our safety in jeopardy, or making us feel disconnected and surreal in our internal lives. 

1. Be authentic!

I don’t take many selfies, but when I do, I try to decide what I’m trying to accomplish with the photo beyond looking good. Who am I talking to? What am I trying to say? What am I trying to hide or reveal? Does my selfie game lead me to feel better or worse about my real, actual body that cares for me each day? Am I honoring and respecting the gifts of physical presence, history, and pleasure that my body gives me every day? 

2. Have boundaries!

Do you know the person you’re talking to in real life? Are they a safe person to share information with? How much information should you be sharing with this safe irl person? If you don’t know them or you know they’re not safe in person then you need to keep certain things off the table – your age, your real name, where you live, where you go to school, etc. 

Fence from Canva’s stock photos

3. Be choosy!

You only have so many hours in the day and you only have so much attention to offer in the marketplace of ideas. What do you want to spend it on? When you choose who to follow, what to watch, and what games and groups to interact with, what is your goal? Sometimes the goal is to just dissociate for a while and have a brain break, and that’s a perfectly valid use of online time, but it’s important to check in with yourself about what impact your viewing and participating is having on your mental health. Stardew Valley is fun for an hour, but if you spend a whole weekend dissociating while you grow turnips and blueberries, you will probably feel like garbage by Sunday evening. The same goes for the celebrities in your insta feed and the amount of fighting with gay bashers you submit yourself to.

4. Give back!

The internet is only as good as we make it. What are you doing to beautify your online community? Every online interaction should include at least two deliberate choices to do something good for the space that you’re in. Some good works that we promote in our family are: 

I’m so grateful for the care and attention the last owner gave to my yard! I reap the benefits every spring.

1. Bring someone into the conversation
2. Give someone meaningful positive feedback
3. Report something that is harmful to the space you’re in (usually ads or reels that are toxic or scammy)
4. Beautify your space with art, jokes, anecdotes, or videos that inspire and uplift
5. Ask questions and engage in open conversation about something or someone who is offputting to you but not harmful or destructive.