Algorithm is a bitch

It's not life that's a bitch, it's the algorithm. Although I haven't actively tried to do so, i.e. haven't explicitly googled it, my Instagram account has been flooded with advertisements about "Wall Pilates", "Intermittent Fasting from 50" and "Indulgence without regret" for weeks and months. Many thanks too! I know myself that it is important and healthy to exercise enough, to eat a balanced diet and not to overdo it with alcohol. But do I want to be informed about this 24/7? No I do not want that. Apparently I can only escape digital paternalism if I'm offline or if I significantly limit my time on Insta and Co. The algorithm, in turn, punishes this immediately by the fact that my social media ranking, on which I am much more dependent professionally than I would like, plummets completely. So it's choosing the lesser of the two evils (in this case, the teachings), at least until I need another break because I feel like I'm going crazy. 

I don't know if it's because of my age, but social media and the self-marketing that goes with it puts a lot of stress on me and has given me a lot of sleepless nights. What is even easier for my children to do than brushing their teeth every day really gives me a lot of trouble. According to media experts, a small business like mine has to constantly produce new content in the form of reels, stories and live videos in order to get at least a touch of media attention and thereby generate new followers, without whom it just doesn't work. But I can't do it because it just takes too long for everything. That may be due to my aspiration to want to do everything perfectly. I somehow don't have the courage to leave a gap, at least not online. Seeing how great and professional this always looks on other people makes me want to get off my desk and get in bed and pull the covers over my head. But even there I'm not sure, quite the opposite. If I back down, the specter called bad conscience immediately lurks

around the corner and the algorithm turns up the heat in the form of ads for apps against procrastination, coping strategies for ADHD sufferers and hashtag experts assuring me on my tiny phone screen that they are the only ones who can put an end to my social media incompetence can prepare. In between, accounts from AI professionals pop up, promising the perfect prompts for ChatGPT and confirming my feeling that I'm somehow too old and too analogue for all this noise. And anyway: when am I supposed to do all this? The more I deal with optimization strategies, the less time I have for all the many things I have to take care of besides Insta in order not only to run my business successfully, but also to somehow manage the rest of my life.

So a few days ago I decided to pull the emergency brake for a long weekend and just check out. Not to be always on, but to insert a small Google, Insta and Co. detox program in order to feel a little more Anja and less style definition. Sometimes the job has to have the character of a long-distance relationship. If you don't see each other all the time, you look forward to each other all the more. Of course, the algorithm also finds you in a deckchair in southern Spain, just like my “friends” from DHL, who currently rank at the top of my personal top ten villains, annoy me no less than in Frankfurt, even 2351 km from home . Nevertheless, such a little break is extremely good for recalibrating your inner compass. When I look at the stars in the evening with my fabulous rosé from Aldi and hear the sound of the sea, social media is as far away from me as the style definery is from the IPO. The feeling that goes with it? Priceless! Incidentally, there are also in the home areas. You just have to dare to look for it and give the algorithm the cold shoulder for the time being.

Have a wonderful week.

LOVE, Anya