social media and me

I feel like the small, dark, end of corridor room in a multiplex where the seats are worn and slightly odd films are shown in their original language at random times of day on a screen not much larger than a tv.

All the other rooms seem to be big and brash and show Disney box office hits where people stream in and out with over sized, over priced, pop corn and extra large fizzy drinks.

Some days that is fine and I am happy to not be in the relentless reel of keeping up.

Feeling different isn’t a new sensation but it is one I had thought, or maybe more correctly, hoped, I would have got over by now.

The urge to bend and mould to fit in better and run after likes is something social media play on. They do it well.

As a creative it’s tricky. Social media is a massive communication channel but the lines between business and personal are blurred. I’m not a big sharer, there or anywhere, and the desire to close down and run from it all has been strong over the last few months.

But Friday morning I was reminded of the power of individual voices coming together. I was reminded that I do have things to say and I can’t allow algorithms to dampen my voice.

As of 9.10am last Friday morning women in France are, effectively, working for nothing. The gender pay gap that had been slowly diminishing (very slowly) has grown over the last two years.

In 1975 the women in Iceland united and participated in the day off for women. The day was organised to protest about the difference in pay between women and men, about the lack of female representation on decision making bodies and about the invisible work women do unpaid day in and day out, amongst other things. 90% of women in Iceland participated in the day off. They didn't go to work, do housework or shopping or cooking. They refused to do childcare and they went out on the streets with their demands. That day no aeroplanes flew, no newspapers were printed, factories, schools and creches closed.

Today Iceland has the smallest gender pay gap in the world and the women still go out on the streets every few years to protest about the difference.

So today I am going to start posting on social media again. Using my voice.