Social Media is a huge part of life. I don't want to say that every single person spends time and energy on social media because I'm sure there are exceptions. However, I feel that I can confidently say everyone I know spends a large amount of time on social media.

For me personally, platforms like Instagram and Facebook haven't just become part of my daily routine, they've become part of my identity. For a few years now I've been talking about how I want to use social media to build a career for myself. I've even created a website and made profiles with their only purpose being to further my career.

Social media is an amazing tool that generations previously did not have. I've found it to be especially helpful in sharing and promoting my own creative works to an audience that may otherwise never even know my work exists.

I'm a photographer and writer, so it's safe to say that blogs and Instagram posts are my bread and butter. I can spend hours submitting work to tens or hundreds of journals and magazines, only to hear back from one or two. Sometimes I won't hear anything at all, but if I do it's often weeks later.

Social media allows me to take photos, write a story, or shoot a film, and have it up with hours of when I'm done creating it. Once I've done the work it's as easy as pushing a button. So far this all sounds great, doesn't it? Then why is it that I find it so gosh-darn difficult to actually create things? I feel like I have writer's block, but for all different creative fields. I have creators block. I've thought a lot about it and I've boiled it down to one thing.

There is no idea that feels original anymore.

It's not that I'm incapable of producing an original idea. I've done it hundreds of times before. Instead, I think the oversaturation of social media is filling my head with too many sources of inspiration, most of which are all different versions of the same thing to begin with.

For example, let's say you're interested in creating fashion and lifestyle content on Instagram. There is a selection of stores you're expected to shop at, a list of poses that bloggers typical do, a few different filters (some of which look basically the same), and everyone is wearing similar outfits.

Of course, you can always adopt what you see on other creators pages and make it fit your own creative identity, but to me, that just feels like recycling. I'm all for recycling plastic, I'm even in support of recycling ideas, but on social media, it doesn't seem to be enough.

I used to soak up my inspiration from everything around me. The music I was listening to, the friends I was with, the books I was reading in class, the projects my friends were taking on. Now, all of that seems to trickle down through social media.

I have thousand-and-one ideas for poems, but every time I try to write one it comes out sounding like the work of someone else. Either that or I freeze and suddenly have nothing to say. All of the things I want to write about are things I've already exhausted.

When I go to take photos it always looks like a variation of a photo that's been taken before. Sure, sometimes I get a lucky shot, but usually, the images just blend in with the hundreds of others that have been taken by everyone and their mother.

I don't plan to stop using social media as it is an integral part of what I do. I will, however, be more conscious of what I take away from social media. Just because a bunch of creators went to a specific milkshake shop or spoken word is trending on youtube, it doesn't mean that's what I am meant to create.

I think it's time I think less, absorb less and create more. Who knows, maybe all I need is time?