The Catch Up: February 2025
I hate social media. There, I said it, and I know I’m not alone. As a founder trying to scale a small business my to-do list is endless and the one thing I always fall behind on is social media- in February it felt like a beast that was constantly on my back.
Don’t get me wrong, it can be an incredibly useful (and free) tool. In fact I have grown Catch Rhys for the most part organically on Instagram- we don’t run paid ads just yet. But more and more when speaking to other business owners, the one thing that stresses us all out the most is social media. It’s the never ending nature of it. You spend hours making content for a week, only to realise that it all needs to be done again the next week and the one after that etc. It’s something on your to-do list that can NEVER be ticked off. Like Sisyphus who was forced to roll a boulder up a hill only for it to roll back down every time it neared the top, repeating for eternity. Except you have multiple boulders and the hill keeps changing so you never know what to expect next.
To make matters worse, social media platforms are owned and mostly run by men who’s only priority is their bottom line. They don’t care that people are scrolling not because they are actually enjoying the content they see but because they are addicted. I don’t know about you but I often find myself picking up my phone to do something and 20 minutes later wondering why I’m mindlessly scrolling through videos on Instagram. Wouldn’t it be amazing if a woman disrupted the industry with a social media platform built for something better? Like Bumble did for dating apps. A place where the content shown to you was what you actually decided to follow, ad free and run for entertainment, educational and creative value rather than to make extremely rich men even more wealthy. A girl can dream (or look for investors and start it herself ).
Back to reality; and how we can work with the system that already exists. I think the key here is making it work for you. The men in their early twenties who confidently proclaim that it’s easy to scale a business- all you have to do is post on TikTok 3 times a day, every day for a year clearly don’t have children, spouses, much responsibility in their lives whatsoever. For me it’s about connection and creativity. I’ve met some amazing women through Instagram, built an incredibly supportive community on there and enjoy it most when I’m flexing my creative muscles and trying something new rather than trying to copy what’s on trend. I actually really enjoyed creating our Valentine’s campaign content, even if running around East London performing for the camera took me way out of my comfort zone.
Whether using social media for work or simply as a casual user I think we can all agree it’s important to try and be more conscious of our time spent on the apps. It sounds obvious, but make sure you spend a healthy amount of time offline, I try to walk for an hour most mornings and my brain is always brimming with ideas by the time I get home. If you need a helping hand to stop the scroll then try an app like One Sec (thank you to Lydia Bolton for the recommendation) or Brick. If your addiction is out of control you could go one step further and purchase a Balance Phone.
How do you feel about social media? Do you hate it as much as I do? Are you still using it regularly, or are you trying to cut back? Did you discover Catch Rhys through Instagram? I’d love to hear your thoughts- just send us an email and let’s chat! And if you know someone who’d enjoy this blog post, please forward it their way!
Liked this blog? Subscribe to our email newsletter and get The Catch Up in your inbox every month!