TEXARKANA MAGAZINE
GOOD EVENING TXK COLUMN BY BAILEY GRAVITT
A s November unrolls its carpet of burnt orange and crispy leaves, it also brings forth the season of togetherness, reflection, and Thanksgiving. This month let’s slice through the pumpkin pie of our digital lives and savor the authenticity that often gets overshadowed by the whipped cream of egos and likes. With the advent of smartphones and tablets, it seems we’ve all been handed tickets to a digital feast where the main course is carefully curated profiles, and dessert is full of sweet, addictive validation. As a writer and social media manager, I have a double- edged relationship with these platforms. I have stumbled through a maze of tweets, stories, and posts, finding myself sometimes chuckling and sometimes cringing along the way. When my tween self first dipped my toes into the bubbling stream of social media, I could never have envisioned I’d one day be running a business’s social media page. Fast-forward a few short years, and now, not only do I weave through the algorithms for laughs and connections, but I’m also thoughtfully (and hopefully creatively) steering the social media ship of an incredible local business.
Just like a grand Thanksgiving dinner, social media promised a table full of connections and laughter. Remember the first bite of Facebook? It tasted like rekindled friendships and family updates. But somewhere between the selfie appetizers and hashtag casseroles, the recipe didn’t quite turn out the way we had hoped. It’s turned into an over-eating frenzy that often feels more like a competition than a community gathering. This shift in social media has burned many of us out and inspired us into a digital detox. Several times through the years, I have temporarily pushed all my social media to the back burner, and each time it was liberating, like unbuttoning your pants after the third serving of turkey. Each break allowed me to rediscover the quiet joy in moments unlived through a lens, and the irreplaceable warmth that comes from conversations without character limits. For social media to reclaim its seat of honor at the table of connection, we must collectively decide to ditch the pretense and sprinkle a bit more authenticity onto our profiles. It’s high time we peel away the fantasy of perfection and reveal the truth of who we are, hidden behind filters and fake smiles.
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SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT
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