Maybe I’ll have more things to share by the time the next date that causes me a movement to reflect shows up - be it: summer solstice, a new quarter, or even September - where the deep seated ingrained response of ‘it’s a new school year’ ticks on over a decade after graduating from university...😅

🌹 Procrastinating moving because you’re scared is just kicking the can down the road. If you’re like me, when an idea starts to take root it’s likely that you’ll eventually follow it - so why not give yourself a chance to interrogate it properly and at your own pace.

🌹 Contacts are evergreen - the likelihood is that the relationships you built in a previous career will prove useful in your new career somewhere down the line. I’ve just started working with someone again who was a mentor to me years ago in my first PR & Comms agency.

🌹 Moving into a new space is never a step behind in progress, it’s always a step forward. Skills are transferable, so even if you can’t initially see how your current experience will map onto a new role, the likelihood is that you’ll surprise yourself with how much overlap there is.

Then when I decided that I wanted to do a career change from that in-house position into training within the data and insights sphere, I was again terrified that I was shunting myself to a junior position in a yet another industry, pushing me further behind still. What I didn’t realise then is that:

When making the decision to move from a PR Agency to an in-house role in social and community management, I was terrified that if I didn’t climb the ranks quickly I’d effectively be taking a step down in seniority and be comparatively years behind the peers I started alongside.

In an industry that prioritises how quickly you can achieve something, whether it’s through ’Rising Star' lists, 'Fastest Growing' lists or the pressure that’s piled on from skewed looks into other peoples lives through social media - it’s scary making the decision to slow down and take a second.

When most of the "the world's town halls” are being run by people with right wing views (or investors), it’s no wonder that these trends are emerging.

And whilst I don’t have a clean solve or suggestion just yet, I certainly will be keeping an eye on what the search terms continue to say. 🧐

Studies have found that weekly rates of hate speech on the social media platform X rose about 50% in the months after its purchase in October 2022 by Elon Musk (whilst the number of bots and bot-like accounts did not decrease, despite Musk's fervent pledges and promises to reduce bot activity).

Whilst the rise of this violence is a huge and pressing concern, the solve that I’ve seen many people put forth is to simply remove digital access for teens and below - but if it’s isolation and alienation that’s causing them to turn toward these influencers for support, is this really the answer?

All of which is happening over the foundation of international rollbacks of DEI policies and a snowballing trend of trad-gender-roles being popularised through influencers, politicians and media.

As the numbers show, it’s certainly got people talking. Search numbers for related terms are soaring, discussion is awash with concerned parents considering digital detoxes, and opinion pieces on catalyst influencers are falling into the online sphere like dominos.

The show made history in the UK with the first episode pulling in 6.45M viewers, while the second recorded 5.9M, beating the third-placed show by 1.5M. Since its release it’s seen over 20k pieces of coverage, with everything from reviews, to interviews with the shows 15 year old lead Owen Cooper.

...it seems as though a platform dedicated to my - dare I say it - 'professional thoughts' might indeed be prudent.