Theories of change
Taking a step back from doomscrolling on social media for a few weeks has also got me thinking about the role it plays in my work.
In early May, I decided to take a bit of a break from social media.
Good news first. The tinnitus has settled down. Many people have it much worse but it had been getting to the stage where it was having an impact on my sleep and my ability to concentrate — so I knew I needed to sort it out in one way or another.
It’s always hard to work out what makes a difference when it comes to improving your physical or mental health, but I’ve kept a bit of a diary over the last five weeks and I think the three things that seem to make it worse for me are caffeine, lack of sleep and stress.
Cutting right back on social media use, particularly in the evening, has really helped in terms of quietening my mind, reducing stress, and improving my sleep.
I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who took an interest in how I was. It was a reminder of how good a place social media can be, amidst all the other stuff.
I wanted to share all of this because I think it’s important to be open about these things, and also because it might be of help to other people who are either struggling with tinnitus specifically, or who are wondering whether social media is having an impact on their wellbeing.
I’ve said many times before — without social media (Twitter in particular) I probably wouldn’t be doing the work that I do.
For me it’s always been a largely positive experience — a chance to meet interesting people, and an opportunity to explore all sorts of issues. It’s been great for campaigning on all sorts of topics, and it’s been vital for getting new projects off the ground, from Empty Homes Doctor to Zero Waste Leeds.
Yet I was becoming increasingly aware of the impact on my mental health of the relentless bombardment with bad news. Let’s face it, there’s no shortage of it right now.
Now I certainly don’t think there’s any point in ignoring it all.
But there are ways to sustainably learn about and respond to what’s going on in the world. And, for me at least, social media is no longer a good way to do that.
So I’ll no doubt dip back in — as there’s plenty that I’ve missed about it too — but it’s been useful to have a decent digital detox and to acknowledge negative impacts that social media can bring.
If you’re interested in issues like this, I’d certainly recommend watching The Social Dilemma:
Social media and social change
Alongside wondering about the impact that consuming news via social media was having on me, I’d also been questioning whether it is a valuable use of my time when it comes to creating social change.
As mentioned above, I doubt I’d be doing my job without the networks that social media have helped me to develop, and the plaform it’s given me to talk about all sorts of topics from transport, to housing, to climate, and to sharing surplus school uniform.
But what’s its role in creating long-term change?
That’s probably a topic for a book rather than a blogpost. Yet it’s something we’ve been thinking about for a while, particularly in relation to some of our projects — including Zero Waste Leeds.
Zero Waste Leeds started out with a Facebook page and not much else — and over four years we’ve achieved all sorts of things online and offline, including campaigns on recycling, clothing & textiles, and waste reduction during lockdown.
And we’ve set up projects, including Leeds School Uniform Exchange and Together For Sport, that seek to tap into people’s natural generosity, to encourage sharing of surplus stuff, whether that’s school uniform or sports kit.
We recently received funding from Leeds Community Foundation to work on our social enterprise’s “resilience” — to make sure we’re here for the long-term.
With some of that funding, we’ve started exploring our Theory of Change — getting right to the heart of what change we want to see, and how we’ll go about creating that change.
It’s been a really interesting process — particularly as what we do has evolved quite a bit in the twelve years since we first set up Social Business Brokers CIC. It’s useful to reflect on how (and importantly, if) it all makes sense.
And, amongst other things, it’s got us questioning the amount of time we devote to social media and online campaigns.
Do we sometimes fall into the trap of thinking that more followers inevitably means more impact?
And might we sometimes limit the ambition of some of our campaigns, because we know that more complicated, challenging messages tend not to capture people’s attention in the way that simple, comfortable-to-swallow, social-media-friendly campaign messages often do?
There’s a lot more for us to explore there. But I suppose for me it’s been useful to step back for a while from social media and to reflect more on its purpose. And, perhaps, (it’s worth watching The Social Dilemma for more on this), what’s the purpose of the companies running the social media platforms most of us have become so reliant on?
It’s become pretty clear to me over the last few weeks that spending too much time consuming news via social media is no good for my mental health. Perhaps the next question is around how we can ensure that we use social media in ways that are good for the health of our social enterprise — so it can help us to create the kind of change we want to see.
When you take a step back from it, it feels pretty naive to expect that the likes of Twitter or Facebook will be trustworthy allies in that quest.