The World Doesn’t Need More Content

(...But humour me by consuming THIS content)

I have been thinking a lot about social media lately. Not in the usual “how do we grow our account?” kind of way. Quite the opposite. I have been wondering whether I still want to grow our account.

The world doesn’t need more content.

There is already an unbelievable amount of it. More videos, more opinions, more inspiration, more people telling us how to live, where to travel, what to buy, how to parent and how to become the best possible version of ourselves. And yet, somehow, we are becoming increasingly distracted, disconnected and lonely.

I am part of this.

I really enjoy making videos. I love telling stories, and sharing ours has allowed people who have never met us to get a glimpse of what we are doing here in Guatemala. That matters to us. Our social media helps people understand Culture Chalk, discover our programs and, importantly, brings guests to Guatemala. Those guests ultimately help fund the community work we are able to do.

So I am not interested in throwing social media away. I am interested in putting it back in its place in our lives.

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("Toilet tales", or tales from my office, IS something

I plan on continuing occasionally, as we have

several tales worth sharing.)

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I started feeding the feed more than I care to.

When I first started sharing our story, the purpose was pretty simple. We had done something unusual. We moved our family to Guatemala, built relationships here, started working with local families and began creating cultural experiences for other families who wanted to come and experience something similar.

I wanted people to know about it.

Then the algorithm entered the room.

Post regularly. Create more. Get more views. Grow the account. Keep people engaged.

And I started noticing something I didn’t particularly like. The things I was doing to grow the account were slowly beginning to conflict with the things I actually believe.

I would find myself on my phone when I didn't need to be. I would think about content when I should have been thinking about people. I would see something happening and, before experiencing it, my brain would sometimes go straight to, “That would make a great video.”

That is a strange place to find yourself.

I am a musician too. I haven't really picked up my guitar since around the time I started focusing on telling our story online. That seems significant to me.

I don't want my kids to grow up watching me tell strangers on the internet how wonderful it is to be present while they are watching me stare at a screen. I want them to see me talking to their mother, engaging with our neighbours, sitting with our guests, participating in our community and playing guitar.

I want them to see me living the things I keep talking about.

If I am going to tell my kids that they don't need to consume everything the world puts in front of them, I probably shouldn't spend my life consuming and creating content.

There is a much better example available: Putting the phone down.

So we are changing Instagram from a feed into a library.

I don't want Culture Chalk's Instagram to require an endless supply of new content simply to stay alive. I want it to become useful.

A library.

Between now and October 1st, we are going to map out pretty much everything a potential guest could want to know about us. Who we are, why we are here, what our programs actually look like, who they are for, what they cost, what families can expect, what the difficult parts are like, what happens when plans change, what our community initiatives are, where the money goes, what previous guests have experienced, how to apply and how to prepare.

We have a lot of stories, photos, videos and things we have learned from hosting families here, and we are going to have fun putting it all together.

So if you have ever wondered what we do here, this is going to be the month to follow along.

Save the posts. Share them. Ask questions. Send them to someone who might be interested. Help us build the library.

Then, on October 1st, something changes.

We are stepping away.

Once the library is complete, we are going to uninstall Instagram from our phones and, very occasionally, pop in for a little surprise story time.

Our "Olderschool" retirement living cultural immersion program.

We aren't disappearing or abandoning social media. Our media management team will handle the day-to-day work, answer messages, direct people to the website and help potential guests find the information they need.

We will still personally update things when something genuinely changes: a new program, a new community initiative, a major development, something worth telling people about.

But I don't want to wake up every morning wondering what I need to post today.

I want to wake up and wonder what I can do today.

There is a difference.

And this is where it gets interesting...

Instagram rewards people who post consistently. That makes sense. It is a business designed around people creating things for other people to consume.

So we are going to see what happens when we stop feeding it.

Will the people who have experienced what we do care enough to share it themselves?

That is the experiment.

If a family comes to Guatemala, spends time with our neighbours, learns some Spanish, gets uncomfortable, laughs, builds relationships and goes home changed in some small way, will they tell someone? Will they send a friend our way? Will they share a post? Will they say, “You should do this”? I don't want to manufacture that.

I want to earn it.

Maybe that is a better measure of whether what we are doing actually has value.

We have always believed that the best part of Culture Chalk isn't the itinerary. It is the people. The itinerary simply creates opportunities for people to connect.

You eat with people. You learn from people. You help people. You get lost. You communicate badly in another language. You laugh at yourself. You realize that your way isn't the only way.

And somewhere in all of that, you start seeing yourself differently.

That is the thing we want people to share. Not an advertisement, an experience.

So, maybe our measurements of success need to change.

For a while, I have allowed followers, views and reach to tell me whether we are doing well. I don't think those numbers are meaningless. They just aren't the numbers I care about most anymore.

I'd rather know how many families came, how many relationships were formed, how much community work those families made possible and how many guests brought another family.

I'd rather know how much time I spent actually engaging with my wife, my kids, our guests and our neighbours.

How often my kids saw me put my phone down.

And, perhaps most importantly for me, how often I picked up my guitar.

Those seem like better numbers.

Maybe the goal isn't to build the biggest Culture Chalk Instagram account. Maybe the goal is to build a Culture Chalk community that is good enough that people want to tell other people about it.

We didn't move to Guatemala to become influencers. We came here because we believed there was another way to live.

At some point, I need to make sure I am still living it.

So for the next month, we are going to tell you everything I can think of being relevant. 

Then we're going to put the phone down.

Come along for the experiment.

And if something we share makes you think of someone who needs to see it, send it their way.

Not because the algorithm needs it.

Because maybe they do.