Right now on the internet, there are countless articles citing countless studies regarding the good vs. evil nature of social media. “Social media is a MUST for your business!” “Social media: the cause of skyrocketing anxiety.” “How to maximize your impact on these top three social sites.” “Don’t use (X) for social media, everyone’s moved to (Z) and here’s why it’s better!”

Frankly, it can become exhausting trying to keep up with the rate of change. You get set up on one social site only to find out that the general population is no longer engaged and has moved to the next best thing…and now they only want pictures, no words. Or words, not pictures. Or videos, not words. It’s an ongoing evolution and it takes hard work to stay up on all of the change…and you never, ever stop learning. Just thinking about it all can be draining!

However, I’d like to propose a different idea….simply using social media as inspiration. Though I’m still on several social sites, I’ve found that my favorite so far is Instagram (although, lately, they’ve lost major points with me as they’ve switched their algorithms to more closely match Facebook….but that’s another complaint for another day).

The reason I like Instagram is the limited engagement it requires; it’s very easy to scroll through my picture feed and I follow only who (or what) I want to follow. Though there are ads aplenty, I’ve found that I can get fantastic doses of daily inspiration from an array of sources that I choose to let talk to me. Because I live and work in the creative realm, I follow different inspirational sources, ranging from architects to typography nuts to foodies to graffiti painters.

Each day, I get new ideas, fresh inspiration, delivered to me and all I have to do is scroll through my feed and look at pictures. The creative ideas serve to inspire me and give me visual motivation to help drive new ideas for the many projects I engage in. And it’s done in an easy, engaging format!

If you haven’t looked at social media from a purely inspirational standpoint, I encourage you to do so. It may be that this viewpoint breathes new life, and a new appreciation, for the outside world and the way you choose to engage with it.