Hello and a very warm welcome to the blog, I hope you’re doing well. I’m so glad to see you here on my website and that you’re interested in learning English.
Today I’m going to talk about social media and why I do not use it.
You may have noticed on the footer of this website links to my social media accounts that I created when I founded my business, Speak Fluent English, in the summer of 2022. If you have noticed, and even clicked on these links, you’ll see very little, if any, activity on these accounts. Why? Well, let me tell you. The simple is answer is that I set these social media accounts up as I felt it was an obligation to do so, to make me look ‘genuine’ to potential new students who do not know me or anything about me. Also, I am always being told that any business nowadays needs a social media presence. However, the truth is, I just do not do social media and never have, even personal social media. Whilst I have a personal Linkedin and Facebook account, I do not use these personal accounts either.
Let me give you a few reasons why.
1. I am an older person and I grew up without social media. To be honest, I’m glad I had this experience of living life without social media. I am used to living my life without it, and I do not feel any need for it.
2. I am a private person. Although I am happy to talk about my life with students during English classes, I do not want to share my life on public platforms with the whole world. I am very happy with my life, however I do not have any desire to shout about it to the world. I do not want or need other people’s approval or admiration.
3. I am quite a shy, introverted person. Furthermore, I am very uncomfortable ‘putting myself out there.’ For example, I am never the life and soul of the party. At parties, I am always the one sitting in a corner watching everyone else having fun. That’s not to say I do not have fun doing this. I enjoy parties very much and attend a lot of them. Fun for me is watching others enjoy themselves without drawing attention to myself.
4. This applies more on a personal level rather than a business level. When I meet up with family and friends, I get a little annoyed if they start getting their mobile phones out, taking pictures and putting them on social media. When I am with people face-to-face, I want to spend quality time with these people, not sit there all evening posing for photographs for social media. Not only do I want my privacy, I do not feel valued as a person if the people I’m with are more interested in posting on social media than spending quality time with me. I might upset some people by saying this, but I actually think it’s really rude to get your phone out of your bag or pocket when in the company of people, but perhaps I’m just a bit old-fashioned!
5. It’s too time-consuming. In addition to the reasons I’ve already said, social media is far too time-consuming.
There are so many social media platforms out there, if you’re not careful you could end up being on more platforms than London Paddington train station (that is a little joke advanced English speakers may understand and something native English speakers might say).
Creating posts, monitoring , moderating and replying to comments etc takes up a LOT of time, especially if you are on multiple platforms. If I am being honest, even if I wanted to do this, it would be very difficult for me to find the time to do this. My time is far better spent teaching English, developing English lesson plans and English courses and researching the latest English teaching methods rather than creating social media posts for ‘followers’ who will never become students. This is not a productive use of my time. I’d rather dedicate my time to my English students rather than social media ‘followers.’
The majority of my English students come to me by word-of-mouth. I have built up a big network of English students over the past eleven years, and word-of-mouth means my past and present students recommend me to their family and friends. This is another reason why I feel spending valuable time on social media isn’t worth it when most English students come to me through word-of-mouth recommendation, not through this website or social media.
Is not having social media a red flag?
The answer is no. People like me without social media accounts are people who generally prefer to avoid the negative impacts social media has on mental health, privacy and productivity. Therefore, not having social media platforms is not a red flag, but a sign of someone who uses free time on the essential things in real life. I believe this to be a positive trait, not a negative one.
Final thought. These are my reasons for not doing social media. However, this might change a little bit in 2023. I am always being told by a lot of business people that I really should be doing social media, so maybe I should bite the bullet and make a bit of an effort with it. Although I am introverted as explained in point 3, I could probably overcome that. The main issue I have is lack of time. If I have some spare time in 2023 I might start doing some small amounts of social media. I can’t promise, but I will try. In the meantime, if you’d like to contact me to find out more about having English classes online, please use the contact form or click the WhatsApp icon in the website footer and send me a WhatsApp text message.
If you’d like to book an online English lesson, please click here.
See you again soon, take care!