We never thought social media would turn into such a chore and mind suck. Following this and following that, working for that next sweet image or grip n grin just to keep traction and continuing growing. Sounds fun right? Then you learn that if you post too much or not enough or at the wrong time or if your fish isn’t in the water you are penalized or reprimanded by the ever changing algorithms or the authorities in charge of the circus that so many of us seem to be addicted to. Did you tag everybody, what about hashtags? Were they the right ones? Why is that person bashing us, we don’t even know them? What’s a troll? Ugg. At first it was entertaining and actually amusing seeing what our friends, family and other fly anglers were doing in the fly fishing community. It slowly turned into a job, a slow burning addiction and a quest to make our posts look as good as possible and keep up. Keep up with who though? Does anybody really care? When it comes down to it, how real is this stuff? Is the quality of life now measured by how many followers you have? Or how many likes you get from a post? Is the”need to belong” and stay up to date, perpetuating a fear of missing out? Having a business, people will tell you its mandatory to have social media and to be honest if we didn’t have our guide service we would probably abandon it all together. But for what we do it is necessary, to a point. But where does that point end? We try to keep our posts positive and celebrate the experience. That part is fun, creative and enjoyable because we love our job and we most definitely love our office. The experience we share with our guests, friends and with ourselves on the water is truly precious. No words or images can ever convey what that is besides being there. But where does this endless cycle become overwhelming and too much in this modern 24 hour world with social media dominating the lives of so many of us? Like many things in life, balance is critical. Do you have a balance with social media? Do you wake up and check it? How about before you go to bed or have a spare second? So we started tracking how much time we were spending on social media. We were completely surprised by how many wasted minutes, turned into hours and were exhausted for what? Nearly all of our phones currently have ways to track usage and the amount of time spent at each place. We challenge you to track it for one week and see how much time you spend and where. You might be surprised as well. So here we are, writing some random words for a paradoxical post on a media site telling you not to do it so much. Like our stuff, follow us, tell your friends but stop using social media and your phone so much (laughing). If you don’t find the absurdity in that Catch-22 funny, we are 100% making up for you as we write this conflicting and laughable blog post. With that, we leave you with an evening photo session on the Lower Sacramento River at the finale of a hot summer day. The caddis were popping and instead of trying to get the perfect shots that people would love on the intraweb, we took some snapshots. So go, get outside as much as possible, even if you’re busy, capture it and share it! But do it with good people and try to turn off your phone as much possible. Social media and your phone are a huge mind suck. Find your balance, whatever that may be and go fish.
So go, get outside as much as possible, even if you’re busy, capture it and share it! But do it with good people and try to turn off your phone as much possible. Social media and your phone are a huge mind suck. Find your balance, whatever that may be and go fish.
Fish Kennedy Brothers 