Tired of the algorithm dictating your worth?
Poetry Oracle: Week of November 20th
Welcome back to the Self Love Confidential Poetry Oracle, where the universe sends you the message you need to hear right now by way of a poem or two from one of my books.
If you’re tired of social media algorithms dictating your worth, this week’s Oracle is for you.
Last week I shared this post from Humans of New York on Instagram and nothing has better described what it feels like to be an artist on social media in 2024. But I’m sure it isn’t just relevant to artists, because on some level, when any of us post, we are laying ourselves down at the alter of the algorithmic gods. Here is what the caption on the post said:
You’re a slut and a whore for the algorithm. I couldn’t do it anymore. You can never feed it enough. You start out making art, and hoping that the door will open. You’re looking for that viral moment so it opens up the door and you can do the thing full time. But you start to compromise just to get the door to open: guessing what it wants, debasing yourself, alienating yourself. Until you’re not even in service to your art anymore. You’re in service to the algorithm. Deep down every artist just wants to be seen. Everyone does. And that’s how it controls you. The algorithm makes you behave in a certain way, create in a certain way, in exchange for being seen. And if something can change what you do, it can change who you are. And I didn’t sign up for that. I didn’t sign up to become a content creator. Art was supposed to be a way for me to be in search of, in service to, in community with. It was my ministry. Art was supposed to be my ministry.”
God. Did this post say it all, or what? How easily we sacrifice our art and our identities. How quickly we bend to fit. To be liked. To be seen.
Of course, this isn’t novel — us putting ourselves out there and chasing the high of external validation in order to establish our worth. Reading it immediately took me back to high school, where for the first time in my life I felt truly desperate to be seen and was willing to be anything the world wanted me to be in order to be deemed enough.
But unlike the world I grew up in, social media now lives in our pockets. With the world literally at our fingertips, it’s hard not to feel pulled towards it. To perform for it. To, well, feed the beast.
“If I crack the code
The algorithm will
Change my life
If I just figure out
What to share and
When and how
I’ll be exactly who
I need to be
For the world
To discover me.”
The Shift, Urban Outfitters exclusive edition.
I expressed this exact sentiment in the bonus content I wrote for the Urban Outfitters edition of my book, The Shift. But what I seem to have forgotten in the months between writing this bonus content and it finally being available to the world, is not the before the shift poem I wrote about how social media makes me feel, but the after the shift poem I wrote when I took the time to reframe my perspective.
“Self love is my
Butterfly effect
I love myself and
Across the world
Others do, too
We rewrite our histories
We design our futures
No longer hidden by our
Doubt, shame, or fear
The universe bends
To welcome us.”
The Shift, Urban Outfitters exclusive edition.
I now remember: self love is my butterfly effect. LOVING MYSELF is how I change the world — not by posting about loving myself or sharing poems with the hope of going viral. And the universe truly did bend to remind me of my worth as soon as I was vulnerable enough to share how bad social media makes me feel sometimes. Moments after I posted, I received a DM and a comment from a stranger, who took the time to remind me that I am not my social media, and my impact is much greater than what the algorithm would lead you to believe.
Instead of posting to appease the algorithm, I posted to free my heart and the universe rewarded me with love and human connection. Paige even inspired the first new poem I’ve written in weeks:
“If my vulnerability
is a prayer
your love
is the answer.”
Paige, that poem is for you. Thank you for reminding me that self love is my butterfly effect, and I don’t need to appease an algorithm to connect with my people and make an impact.
Whomever you are, and whatever you do, know your worth has nothing to do with what a social media algorithm thinks of you. Your people (including me!) love you for who you are — no likes, follows, or shares required.
