Isn't that why anyone participates in social media? To like and be liked?
But doesn't this assumption, beg the question: what about champion curlers or antique stamp enthusiasts or lawyers? We certainly don't assume that they've chosen such sports, hobbies, or professions... to like and be liked... do we?
So why do we diligently reduce the discussion of social media as a platform to share content of a personal nature, as a hobby or as a profession... to little more than diatribes on personal vanity, narcissism, self absorption, conceit, and so on, and so forth?
Moreover, aren't op/eds... in so far as they disclose the thoughts and opinions of a publication's editors and/or readers... content of a personal nature? Yet... generally speaking, op/eds are more likely to judged on the quality of the reasoning within - than on the repugnant use of a public forum to engage in trivial discourse.
Aren't amateur comedy hours... in so far as they feature unique, individual perspectives on life and relationships... also, content of a personal nature? Yet... generally speaking, comedic performances are more likely to be judged on the quality of the humor employed - than on the despicable use of a public forum for overweening self-promotion.
In fact, isn't social media merely a vehicle for doing what many of us do, in real life, anyway?
To wit... we divulge what we wear, to people who simply ask, from family to friends to coworkers to strangers... we routinely declare our unsolicited opinions on movies, products, gym memberships, etc. with strangers, coworkers, friends, etc.... and we're as likely to reveal intimate particulars about our lives to strangers, as we are to close friends, when we celebrate private milestones, publicly, i.e. birthdays, graduations, weddings, etc.
Furthermore... friends may plead for restaurant recommendations... coworkers may entice us with benign banter, regarding news or gossip... and cashiers, observing that we've straggled into a drugstore, at an ungodly hour, to procure newborn baby supplies, may inquire about our bundles of joy.
How many of us, would view these examples of innocuous invitations to engage in social fellowship, as unabashedly gauche attempts to like or be liked? For, of course, even the least social among us, have willingly reciprocated with congenial small talk, within many situations, such as those enumerated above.
Therefore, why are these invitations and interactions, irl, brushed aside with harmless equanimity... but invitations and interactions within social media, as a whole, are scrutinized with intense suspicion and skepticism? Perhaps... we should be more distrusting with everyone... and disregard social courtesies irl, not unlike our comportment de rigueur, online?
Regardless, there's certainly more to why social media is the juggernaut that it is today, than the desire to like or be liked. For, I for one... am not on social media, to like or be liked, to thereby acquire fans or followers or fame. Rather, I'm on social media, because I sincerely believe that my contributions are worth more than my silence, within a dialogue, vastly greater than I could possibly entertain, otherwise.
In the end, why is my desire to say something, on the blackboard of the information superhighway, irrefutable evidence of... egomania?
Thank goodness, I'm not a revolutionary...
because I'd be hanging from the rafters, with me, myself, and I.
Addendum:
Above is my first update from bloglovin... which I joined, after the desire to update the antiquated description of one of my blogiverse blogs, outweighed my intrinsic dubiety of a "blog feed service" that required my membership, in order to update information that was accessible, without my membership.
In any case, this update served as a jarring reminder that the point of blogging, was to acquire likes, fans, followers, and fame. After which, it occurred to me that following a formula for modern popularity, inexplicable though it seemed, would invariably entail regurgitating popular memes already in circulation (i.e. sex or cats, although, preferably, not together). But, upon consideration... the thought of cheerfully swimming in a cesspool of pointless offal, endlessly perpetuated vis a vis social media, was eminently less appealing than scrubbing a public toilet with a toothbrush.
Nevertheless, the entire social media megaverse cannot be lumped together, as a homogeneous mass of disingenuity or insignificance. Nor can everyone on social media, be lumped together, as a homogeneous population of vapid self promoters or malicious trolls.
However, there is a conspicuous predisposition with regard to our discourse on why social media is what it is, to comment on the worst attributes of social media and the worst social media conversationalists... such that I've relentlessly challenged my own decision to participate in any form of social media.
But social media isn't populated by reality stars and attention junkies, posting noxious garbage, ad nauseum. Rather, social media is populated by us. Believe it or not, reality stars and attention junkies... are us, too... but for happenstance, wherewithal, and intention. Besides, the social media world is vast and populated by far more than reality stars and attention junkies. However, many non-reality stars and non-attention junkies, seem inordinately fixated on such invented personalities, nonetheless.
Still... regardless of the feculance that does pollute the digital landscape, no one forcibly compels any of us, to digest it... no more than no one forcibly compels any of us to digest anything available for consumption, from ideas to pastries to train wrecks.
As for me... perhaps it's hubris... or optimistic idealism... or implacable resistance to the opinions of everyone else... or all of the above... or none of the above.
In the end, do you care?
In fact, doesn't a person's presence on social media endow categorical permission to judge and be judged... those who apparently strive to like and be liked? Thus, isn't this the rationale that lies unchallenged, in favor of broad sweeping generalizations regarding the sheer meaninglessness of a platform that is, no more and no less than a means for doing what we do, with or without social media, anyway? Indeed, the real world itself, is no more and no less meaningful than the digital world of social media, where we merely replicate that which we do, irl, i.e. judge and be judged, like and be liked.
For, ultimately... the social media world is our world... to embrace or detest... to attend or ignore... to uplift or deface... as we see fit.
More/further reading:
What inspired this post, was this episode of Frontline: Generation Like (aired Feburary 18, 2014).
Despite the fact that Frontline's Generation Like is a disappointingly shallow treatment of the subject matter, this treatment of social media, as a whole, is common and predictable.
Alternatively, the social media universe is also home to the open education resource movement (more here at Wiki), arguably one of the most laudable agendas for social media utilization.
However, despite the admirable aspirations of OERM advocates, open education resources are not without drawbacks... notably with regard to the limitations of self directed learning, at the individual level (e.g. sustaining the commitment required to complete a free online course, with less social interaction than a traditional institutional setting), as well as financial implications, at the corporate level (including concerns by various institutions, as to whether or not free education, erodes their financial viability vis a vis the concern that consumers won't pay for what they can acquire, for free).
Nevertheless, these drawbacks don't diminish the extraordinary value of free education resources from bright minds, around the world... uniquely possible and eminently accessible, by virtue of, gasp, social media.
