Hi Lovelies,

Welcome back! And welcome if You are new here xo

How are You, I hope You are well? Today’s post has been inspired by French green beauty blogger & Youtube bourrique where she talks about consumption, having to post good quality content on the regular, finding her place in the clean beauty world & more. This topic has been on my mind for months now and I think it is time to voice it. So here it is – I am quiet quitting overconsumption, pressure and most importantly, bending my own real life to accommodate algorithms! There, I said it.

You might have noticed me going quiet on social media for a while. There are a couple of reasons for that. As an empath and highly sensitive person, I got burned out. In a post pandemic world we all find ourselves trying going back to our “normal” lives and struggling on so many levels. Inflation is at all times high, we are pressured more than ever at work. There are shortages everywhere but we are still conditioned to overconsume & move towards renting everything in our lives, as well as giving up more and more rights. We are conditioned to post on social media daily/weekly/on the regular, but because so many of us (myself included) don’t want to share our messes and struggles of our lives, we tend to put out about 5% of the best bits of it. Of course, scrolling IG will give You FOMO & drive You to purchase more… To fix things that are apparently “wrong” with us. You want to get what Your friends or Your favourite bloggers are using and raving about. And that cream promises to do everything, including erasing the fact that You’ve been tired since 1998.. It costs an arm and the leg, but it’s worth it, right? Not, if You have to check the bank balance before You buy it…

Let’s see what Bourrique had to say: (as of translated via the app)

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cokd5-BtVfW/

It’s really nice to read you… some stories that escape and I read your nice messages 🥰
Yes, I moved “a little” away from the rezosossio, voluntarily. I’m tired of advertising, hidden advertising, a lot of “content” that all looks the same. Besides, I no longer support this name “content creator”, certainly because this understatement reflects the abyssal emptiness of content. And I asked myself the question: how am I really different?
I had a burst of self-esteem. This account was initially fueled by a real desire to share around organic beauty. It was very nice long and stimulating. The YouTube channel was a necessary extension of all there was to say. At the start, few products, few offers. And it exploded. To follow, it was necessary to try more, to change the routines, not to give more time.
As much as I like novelty, I like to keep a product that I like and that works.
Two micro-events really made me stop everything: an email from YouTube telling me that I was no longer publishing enough. Not enough for whom? So that we can stuff ourselves with even more ads? No blood for two pennies, I transferred all my videos. Plus a kopek for Yt.
Just before that, there was a comment from a troll who basically said that organic food shops were thieves. This comment pissed me off. Don’t want to argue with fools. Why do this to me?
Instagram, YouTube, these should be places for sharing and discussion, not for rivalries or insults. No more wanting to read all the language that goes on and on about organic beauty and “fear marketing”. Oh wait! The 100 grams of spf daily is NOT fear marketing at ALL.
In short, I dropped the case and it was good. I’m not saying I don’t miss it. I miss Instagram before, before it was just a promotional store.
Sometimes I have a little impulse to publish, to show something that I loved. Then afterwards I imagine the rest and I am lazy.”

To which my reply was:

“Oh how I hear You on so my different levels! I too question myself in this context, I started my blog in order to help people find natural products (that was over a decade ago, prior to PR, “influencing”, links, etc). Now I find myself a small keg in some kind of “machine” where I am supposed to work for free products (brands never want to pay) and work myself to the ground to accommodate algorithms. Who has time to constantly post daily, be inventive and authentic enough? Stand out from the crowd so you don’t look like so many others? When I found myself saying no or “wait, mommy’s working on the blog/IG/YT/whatever” to my kids, that’s when I realized I need to stop. No more bending my real life for posting regularly, no more advertising others for free or crumbs so often disguised as “affiliate opportunity”. Yes I will keep posting my content, but when I am ready, not when “it’s time to post”, I will post lots of diys or affordable & minimal products. I am also done with marketing and chasing new products/trending products. Glad I am not alone in thinking this way.”

So yes, bad Google translation and a ramble later, let me summarize – I am done with algorithms. I am done with making real life changes to accommodate it. Why 7billion of us are doing that without thinking about it? Why do we spend so many ours online instead of connecting in real life? I could go on and on about it, but You catch my drift. Needless to say I will not be found in Metaverse/ artificial online life/ next app that’s coming – ever. Instead, I will be building connections in real life, will do my best to be best mom/daughter/friend/etc. I want to help make the world a better place. I want to leave it better than I found it. Social media is a powerful connection tool, yet it is set up in a way that makes it hard to connect with real people, favouring ads/paid content/ showing You only 10% of the people pages You are following and only the ones You interacted with recently. To try to counteract it, I’ve made a real effort to go to people’s pages I want to follow and leave comments on the daily/ weekly basis, but it is taking more and more time and effort. Which defeats the whole purpose, it should not take so much effort & time to connect. Have You ever witnessed people on their phones while out and about, for example in the restaurants? They are literally ignoring person in front of them!

I call it zombie apocalypse & bought with our own money.

I am also done with so many other things, but that’s another post for another time. But I will tell You a sneak preview and what You can expect from me coming forward. I am sort of quietly quitting trying new skincare, partly because I already found what works for me, partly because my uber sensitive skin can’t handle it, partly I have to give up chasing every new product that’s coming to the market. You will be still seeing skincare & green beauty posts from me, but I will expand my content too. We are not just one thing. I have so much more to say and give. It’s just I will be doing it less frequently & not algorithmicaly 🙂 Is that even a word? I want to give You good content that’s of value and not posted for the sake of posting, simply because it is time to “post”. I value Your time. I want You to take away something of value every time You read my posts. I understand that being this way I will be penalized by internet gods, aka my blog will forever be in the internet jail and won’t be shown to people.

I am okay with that.

MANY THANKS for reading, I appreciate You taking Your precious time to read my post. I hope You will stay with me going forward.

Sending LOVE & LIGHT,

Renata.