B.A.B.E. blog, Front Page, Social media for actors
10 Reasons I hate #actorslife
Anyone who knows me well knows I have very specific opinions on using social media (especially professionally), on how many selfies a person should post, on what constitutes good etiquette and what doesn’t, and on what I think about the use of hashtags, specifically #blessed and #actorslife.
Pretty much daily I want to throw someone under a bus (metaphorically speaking, not really pushing them with my actual hands) because they’ve used #blessed or #actorslife in a tweet or Instagram or Facebook post.
It does my head in.
So this short, sweet and snappy post is about my TOP 10 REASONS why I hate when people use #actorslife in a post. And if you want to know more pet peeves on social media, just see my previous post on Twitter etiquette.
Without further ado, here are my top 10 reasons for why I despise the use of the hashtag actorslife! In no particular order.
- It literally makes people sound like a wanker.
- Anna Kendrick doesn’t say #actorslife so why would I (see Anna Kendrick’s twitter page for TOTAL AWESOMENESS).
- I haven’t worked out why an actors life is different from any other life. Should my sister use #engineerslife or my mum use #mumlife? Or my lawyer mate write #legallife. Gosh shoot me now we start seeing #Trumplife
- It’s as bad as #blessed. I’m not blessed. I chose this job of being an actor. It’s not blessed, it’s a #choice! If I am #blessed it should be because I’m in church on a Sunday reading out a prayer.
- I have found that #actorslife usually follows with some Gwenyth Paltrow type humblebrag – see below for the definition of humblebrag. And that humblebrag #actorslife tweet usually sounds more douchey than Sunday lunch with Donald Trump. (Can you tell I don’t rate him!)
- I would rather my 160 letters were used to convey an actual message that adds value, or is interesting, or thoughtful or fun, rather than make me sound more generic than a bottle of ASDA water. If I add #actorslife it is likely to be a post about something really crappy that happened where I’m being facetious, or an Ah-Mazing audition that will leave other actors feeling rubbish, or a humblebrag about how great I am.
- I have morals. #morals #life #getonwithit
- I do enough stupid things without warranting more crap burdening my emotionally drained head. And if I write #actorslife for every acting related tweet or Facebook post, people are going to be anticipating something magical is about to follow. And then if I don’t write something magical I’m just going to look like a try-hard jerk.
- Do we actually want to tell the world what an actor’s life is like? – e.g. waiting for my agent to call; waiting for my accountant to call; waiting for my hair dye to work; working out what the hell a modern monologue is that hasn’t been done 10 000 times before me.
- In my life…you know this one I’m currently living…acting is just one component of that. See I’m not living and breathing acting every second of my life. I’m actually just busy enjoying being a human, and girlfriend, along with being a mum, a friend, a daughter, a shower singer, a business coach….blah blah. #ActingIsJustOnePartOfMyBusyLife. (oooh maybe that’s why I’m so bloody #blessed.)
And goodnight!
Awesome blog. The truth shall set you free….from having to write (hashtag) actorslife.
ha ha!! lets hope so. And think of all the extra time you’ll have on your hands, not typing those extra letters each day. Thanks for reading Hayley.
Love this honesty! Is it just younger actors who are doing this then? Perhaps it’s all part of this social media obsession with promoting a curated image where everything is amazing, and the messy/complicated parts of real life are glossed over?
Hi Trish, thanks for reading!
That is a great question…At first glance you might think it would be a young folk thing, given social media has always been a part of their world. However in my experience it doesn’t actually matter what age the actor is. I’ve seen much older actors use it, and equally lots of young actors. But mostly, I haven’t witnessed super successful actors use it and I think that’s an important determinant.
It’s a mindset thing. Some actors like to use the term and others detest it. Interestingly as a result of this post, a few actors have told me they breathed a sigh of relief that they don’t need to add it any more as it made them feel needy and slightly attention seeking. So perhaps actors have been lulled into a false sense of believing if they ‘show off’ everything they’re up to with a hashtag #AboutTheirGreatActingLife, then perhaps it will generate more work. From what I’ve been hearing from Casting Director and directors, this certainly isn’t the case. If anything, many of them (CDs, producers, directors) have mentioned that they mute actors who post too much so they don’t see all their #actorslife #I’mAwesome posts.
That was a long answer – but the short is, I don’t think it’s age specific, but more mindset specific.
Thanks again for reading!
Thanks for the great read, did make me laugh 🙂