I told myself I was making a principled stand. Really, I was just scared of being visible.
"I don't want to play those games," I'd say when someone suggested building a presence. "The growth hacks, the fake engagement, the constant posting – it's all manipulation."
I sounded so principled. So above it all.
What I actually meant was: "I'm terrified people will see my work and think it's mediocre."
The manipulation tactics were a convenient excuse. Growth hacking felt gross, so I used that grossness to justify staying invisible. If the only way to succeed on social media was through tactics that felt wrong, then I could avoid the whole thing without admitting I was just scared.
Except the tactics weren't the only way. I was using my legitimate discomfort with marketing manipulation to hide from a much less impressive fear: what if I put myself out there and nobody cared?
Then something shifted in how platforms work, and I accidentally discovered that my fear had been masking something useful all along.
The Excuse That Let Me Hide
Every time someone suggested I should post my work, I had a ready list of reasons why social media was fundamentally broken:
"They want you to post 3 times daily. I don't have time to create that much content."
"You need to follow/unfollow hundreds of accounts to game the algorithm. That's just spam."
"Everyone's buying engagement to look legitimate. The whole thing is fake."
"Real work doesn't get noticed – only viral tricks and clickbait."
All of this was true in 2022-2023. The advice floating around genuinely was terrible, and the tactics genuinely were manipulative.
But here's what I wasn't admitting: even if all that manipulation worked, I probably still wouldn't have done it. Because the manipulation wasn't actually why I was avoiding social media.
I was avoiding it because showing your work publicly is uncomfortable. Because explaining your thinking makes you vulnerable to disagreement. Because having opinions in public means people might think those opinions are wrong or basic or obvious.
The growth hacking stuff was real, and it really was gross. But I was using it as a shield against facing a much simpler truth: I didn't want to be visible because visibility is scary.
What Actually Got Me to Try
I didn't overcome my fear through some moment of courage or personal growth. I just got annoyed.
A client kept asking where they could see more of my work. I'd send portfolio PDFs, and they'd respond with "do you have a blog or something?"
After the third time explaining that no, I don't maintain a blog because the ROI on content marketing is questionable, I realized I sounded like I was making excuses for not having any public presence at all.
So I wrote something about SaaS pricing pages on HackerNoon. Not because I'd overcome my resistance to social media, but because it seemed less embarrassing than admitting I was scared of it.
The piece was just me breaking down why pricing pages consistently confuse users. The kind of analysis I'd normally put in a client presentation. Nothing fancy, nothing viral-optimized, just showing the design thinking.
It got 2,407 reads. Over 6 days of total reading time. People I'd never met mentioned it across the web.
And I spent the entire time it was happening feeling like I might throw up.
The Fear Behind the Fear
Here's what I learned watching that post get traction while simultaneously wanting to delete it and hide:
The fear of social media manipulation tactics wasn't protecting me from anything. It was just giving me a socially acceptable reason to avoid something uncomfortable.
Because even after platforms changed and growth hacks stopped working, I still felt that same resistance. The tactics weren't the problem – the vulnerability was.
Every time someone engaged with the post, I had this split reaction: "Oh good, people found it useful" mixed with "Oh god, now they have opinions about my thinking."
Someone would leave a thoughtful comment agreeing with my analysis, and I'd feel validated. Someone would disagree or point out something I'd missed, and I'd feel exposed. Both reactions were about the same thing: being visible means being evaluate-able.
The growth hacks and manipulation gave me something external to reject. Something that let me feel principled instead of scared.
But what I was actually rejecting was the discomfort of having a public professional identity.
What Changed (And It Wasn't Just the Algorithms)
While I was busy avoiding social media, platforms did actually shift in ways that validated some of my original instincts.
Trust in social media dropped to 42% globally. Instagram removed hashtag following entirely. YouTube started demonetizing mass-produced generic content. All those manipulation tactics that felt wrong? Platforms killed them because they were destroying user trust and ad revenue.
The algorithms changed to reward exactly the things I was naturally good at: clear visual hierarchy, authentic voice, user-focused thinking. Design skills instead of marketing tactics.
So in a way, I was right that the old approach was broken. But I was wrong about why I was avoiding it.
I thought I was making a principled stand against manipulation. Really, I was just scared of being judged. The manipulation gave me something concrete to point at, something that made my avoidance seem thoughtful instead of fearful.
What Actually Works Now (And I Hate That It's This Simple)
The content that performs best now is exactly what I could have been doing all along if I hadn't been so busy making excuses:
Just share your work and explain your thinking.
That's it. That's the whole strategy.
User-generated content – the kind that looks like a human made it – gets 4x higher click-through rates than polished marketing. Authenticity beats polish. Quality beats quantity.
The post that got traction wasn't fancy. I didn't optimize it for virality. I didn't use any growth hacks. I just explained a design pattern that doesn't work and why teams keep using it anyway.
Turns out when you remove the manipulation tactics I was using as an excuse, what's left is: do you have something useful to say, and can you say it clearly?
Those are design problems, not marketing problems. Visual hierarchy, clear communication, understanding user needs – this is what I already do professionally.
The only thing stopping me was the discomfort of doing it publicly.
The Part Where I'm Still Uncomfortable
I'm writing this post and still feeling that same resistance. Part of me wants to not publish it because admitting I was hiding behind excuses is embarrassing.
I told myself for two years that I was too principled for social media. That I had integrity. That I was better than the growth hackers and engagement farmers.
Really, I was just scared that people would see my work and think "that's obvious" or "that's wrong" or "why should I care what this person thinks?"
The discomfort hasn't gone away. I still hesitate before posting. I still check engagement with that mixture of hope and dread. I still have moments where I think "maybe I should just delete everything and go back to being invisible."
But I've gotten better at recognizing that discomfort for what it is: not a sign that something's wrong with social media, but a sign that visibility requires courage I didn't want to admit I lacked.
What I Wish I'd Understood Sooner
The growth hacks and manipulation tactics were real problems. Platforms rewarding fake engagement and viral tricks genuinely did make social media feel like a scam.
But using that as a reason to avoid the entire space was like refusing to learn design because some designers use dark patterns.
The tools aren't the problem. How they're used is the problem. And now that platforms have shifted to reward authenticity over manipulation, the excuse is gone.
What's left is just the scary part: putting your work and thinking out there for evaluation.
Turns out design skills translate perfectly to content when you stop trying to "do content" and just share what you know. Visual hierarchy matters more than growth hacks. Clear communication beats clickbait. Understanding what users need beats pushing what brands want to say.
I already had these skills. I just didn't want to use them publicly because public means vulnerable.
The Actually Useful Takeaway
If you've been avoiding social media because the tactics feel wrong, you might be right about the tactics but wrong about why you're really avoiding it.
Ask yourself: if all the growth hacks disappeared tomorrow and platforms rewarded exactly the kind of quality work you already do – would you suddenly feel comfortable posting?
If the answer is no, then the tactics aren't your real blocker. The discomfort of visibility is.
And that's fine. Visibility is uncomfortable. Having opinions in public is scary. Being evaluate-able by strangers is vulnerable.
But if you wait until those feelings go away, you'll wait forever. The discomfort is part of it.
The good news is that platforms now reward exactly what designers are naturally good at: clear visual hierarchy, authentic communication, user-focused thinking. You don't need to learn marketing or growth hacking or any of the manipulation tactics that felt wrong.
You just need to share your work and explain your thinking. That's the same thing you do professionally – just in public instead of in client presentations.
The hard part isn't the content. It's accepting that being visible means being vulnerable, and that's okay.
A Note on the Research
The data and trends in this piece come from research I did with Alex Halchenko on how social media algorithms have shifted to reward design thinking over traditional marketing tactics. We spent months tracking platform changes, analyzing engagement patterns, and talking to designers about what was actually working versus what marketing gurus were still selling.
If you want the full breakdown with all the platform-specific numbers and uncomfortable projections about where this is heading, Alex published the complete research here: Social Media Marketing Essentials: Why Designers Are Winning in 2026.
You can find more of my work and thinking about design at DNSK.WORK.
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