It's time to unleash your social potential
Tags: writing, motivation, learning
Published: 2021-01-11 18:12:47

The issue I have had with social media in the past is only being able to see the negative aspects. I'm also someone that by default prefers to keep things fairly quiet, an air of mystery if ever that was a thing.

> **social** *adjective* - Of, relating to, or occupied with matters affecting human welfare. Of or relating to human society and its modes of organization. Interacting with other people and living in communities. [[1]](#1)

The truth is all technology work is now online. I chose this career, and I have learned how to use technology to bring business value to organisations, why not to myself?

> **potential** *adjective* - Capable of being but not yet in existence; latent or undeveloped. *noun* The inherent ability or capacity for growth, development, or future success. [[2]](#2)

It's time I opened my eyes to what has been staring me in my face the whole time. Having an online presence is important, it can demonstrate so many qualities in oneself but the most important one to me right now during Covid is connection. 

Working alone at home in quarantine, looking for a job is exhausting, and it's my first time tackling technical interviews. I have never done one, so have no idea how that is going to go. For now, my goal is to get to the interviews and see what companies expect. 

But **how** can you connect with people?

## Social media as a tool

Like any tool, social media has potential, and success is made when we can use this potential to provide value. However when we forget to reason, "does this tool actually address a problem we are facing right now", this is when we don't get what we want.

Too often I have reached to eliminate sources of distraction entirely but maybe there are other options we can consider. It actually might be more effective to understand how we want things to serve us, as Free solo famous Alex Honnold discusses in an interview about his work [[3]](#3).

## Is blogging social media?

So let's talk about how this might go. Wikipedia describes a blog as consisting of "often informal diary-style text entries" [[4]](#4). And you can see on this [very blogging platform](https://dev.to/) some [cool](https://dev.to/softprops/dev-together-cno) [examples](https://dev.to/saigowthamr/how-to-start-a-personal-blog-in-2020-and-grow-0-80k-views-15ja) of [how](https://dev.to/andrezzoid/remote-work-interviews-part-i-applying-519d) you might [approach](https://dev.to/aws-heroes/applying-the-well-architected-framework-small-edition-18fj) this [opportunity](https://dev.to/davidmaceachern/learning-rust-collecting-data-from-an-api-2h51).

Ok great, so you have made your first blog post, so what? 

> **validation** *noun* The act of giving validity; a strengthening, enforcement, or confirming; an establishing or ratifying [[5]](#5)

Validation gets a bad wrap, it can be an important element in the journey of discovering whether an idea is going to deliver some value. Will our customers like our product, will our developers enjoy their job, [is my understanding of this subject correct](https://dev.to/davidmaceachern/comment/194me)?

If we don't communicate with other human beings, then we miss out on a valuable chance to [improve](https://github.com/softprops/devtogo/issues/8) our situation, there's always a way, right? 

We could think of blogging as a social media, a place we can connect with others.

## But what about micro-blogging?

Wikipedia, appears to explain microblogging[[6]](#6) as a petite form of blogging, something that takes less time but allows you to share your thoughts all the same.

Twitter is the atypical example of the microblog (I had a Myspace and a Bebo once upon a time but they might not be relevant anymore...). 

Yes you can use a microblog to kill time if that's what you really want, or you could build an inspiration machine, it's all a matter of perspective.

{% twitter 1348387839235514369 %}

Think of the ways that you could use a microblog to your [advantage](https://twitter.com/hashtag/MozillaLifeboat), maybe you can connect with people in ways you'd never imagined were possible. 

If you need more ideas for Twitter specifically, I can't find the tweet but [Josh W. Comeau](https://mobile.twitter.com/JoshWComeau) shared a great guide, the link is in the references [[7]](#7).

For me, I'm starting here:

{% twitter 1348607648808259585 %}

Let's see how this goes.

## Wrapping up

Does this resonate with you? Are you looking for a job too? Or just feel like talking to someone? My messages are open, or comment down below so everyone else can join in!

Have a great week!

## References

<a id="1">[1]</a> Social https://www.wordnik.com/words/social
<a id="2">[2]</a> Potential https://www.wordnik.com/words/potential
<a id="3">[3]</a> Alex Honnold talks about deleting social media amongst other things {% youtube smi1wxnr0PI %}
<a id="4">[4]</a> Blogging https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog
<a id="5">[5]</a> Validation https://www.wordnik.com/words/validation
<a id="6">[6]</a> Microblogging https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microblogging
<a id="7">[7]</a> Josh W. Comeau's helpful guide to Twitter https://docs.google.com/document/d/1b7P71-OjEt5dHlgKEf9EbUBTkXRVrpDQaz7giXUd3n4