I’m beginning to wonder how we as a society have ever got anything done without a camera being present. It seems like everything that we do, from getting ready to go to town, to doing our daily job has to be documented with a video and shared for everyone to see. I’ll admit that I can spend a fair bit of time watching videos on my phone that someone shared, but I catch myself wondering how much time is wasted on both ends of that video. The person that made the video of themselves doing their job had to take extra effort to set up a camera, or wear one, make the video, edit it so that it looked professional and then take the time to post it to their social media so that all their followers could marvel over the thirty second clip. The viewers are wasting their own time watching the video when they could be doing almost anything else.
There are several times this past summer that I have spent early mornings in the saddle moving cows from one pasture to the next while we chased every blade of grass we could during this prolonged period of drought. I think my favorite thing about most of those mornings is the lack of cell phone service in some of those pastures. No phone calls, no notifications going off and no contact with the outside world. Just simple peace and quiet gathering cows and pushing them on to the next pasture. Being present in the moment is something that we have lost in this country. We can’t seem to do anything without having video proof of it anymore.
I never dreamed that there would be such a job title as social media influencer, let alone working ranchers that filmed everything that they do. I can see the benefits of sharing videos that promote agriculture and our way of life. There is a vast world out there that doesn’t understand what we do and why we do it. On the flip side of that coin, however, I think that too much access to our lives and operations opens up a whole new can of worms that most folks don’t want to mess with. Live action video of ranchers doctoring their cattle on pasture looks like everyday life to most of us, but to some bleeding-heart crazy cat lover living in her parents’ basement, it looks cruel and unusual. My advice to all you social media cowboys is to post content that highlights and showcases your operation, not videos that can be misleading.
I also find it funny that many of these influencers believe that their method of running cows is the only way it can be done. There’s a big difference between running cattle in 80-acre pastures in Missouri and gathering cattle off a desert in Idaho. Some of the wildest cattle I have seen in my life were the ones who never saw a horse and were moved with a feed wagon and a four-wheeler. Some of the gentlest were handled the same way. The guy driving the four-wheeler or riding the horse has more to do with the disposition of the cattle than the method being used. It’s truly amazing to watch some of these so-called cowmen try to accomplish simple tasks in the hardest way possible.
While I can enjoy some of the videos produced by these influencers, I for one will not be living my life in front of a camera. I’ll take my peace and quiet, and I’ll continue to try and live life in the slow lane. Ranching isn’t about deadlines or being in a rush all the time. It’s about enjoying the simple things, being present in the moment and enjoying God’s creation as he made it. That’s all for this time, keep tabs on your side of the barbed wire and God bless.