I'll say this right away: never in human history was a person less powerful and in control of his life than now, when all the social media platforms are booming. And, especially, Facebook (with all its assets: Instagram, WhatsApp, etc.).
It all began as an innocent project with a mission to connect people of the world. Cute. At the same time they acquired (or tried to do so) all the competitive businesses and openly claimed that their sole purpose is to become a No.1 App in the world. Well, Facebook is a business, I get it. But we're the product. They try to keep as many of us online as possible, otherwise they wouldn't earn those billions of advertising money.
Let me illustrate this pathetic situation with a selfie, that I remember taking only cause I wanted to see how many likes I can get with a typical duckface and some kissy-feely look.
So this usual craving of being liked gets you only more addictive to the social network itself. And it's a perfect mechanism to keep you wanting for more, keep you trying to adjust your life (or the image, illusion of it) accordingly. To post more engaging content, to lure more of your friends to the network. And everything just to be more liked, to live a more like'able life. To have a perfect relationship, to travel the world, to always be happy - because it's the way everyone looks in the newsfeed. But it's all fake.
Here's another selfie I took after bursting into tears when I couldn't find any meaning or purpose of anything anymore. Do you think I've shared it with anyone? Nope, only with my best friend. Why is that?
Just think about it, when was the last time you saw someone crying or being sincerely angry online? It's rare, cause it's not pretty. It's rare, cause it's not likeable. In fact, that is the lowest scoring content on virality index on Facebook. Hey, but it is real. And people go online to escape from all this reality shit.
Ok, so people go online for entertainment, what's wrong or unclear about that, you may ask? Well, nothing. Until you start tailoring your real life according to the fake reality online. All the expectations how the things should be (or, in that matter, look like) and how everyone should act around you (if you don't post any pictures with your girlfriend online, do you really love her?).
I've noticed that I don't even know what I truly like doing anymore, since it's such an important criteria to be able to show something for the world. If you don't upload any instant stories is your life boring? Are the activities you're doing not worthy of being shown to the public? And what are the activities you should be doing according to the newest "cool" criteria? If you don't have anything to brag about have you failed as a human being?
OR are you just sane person, with proper self-esteem, that can stop being a product of social media and can start creating his/her life independently?
I certainly hope that Steemit community can escape that, since being rewarded for the content you make (a product you create, not the product you become) is a different thing. It's one of the reasons I joined it. Just don't feel that your own worth can be measured in dollars (or cents, if you're just a beginner like me). It's just letters, life happens offline. So stay healthy and love yourselves!
Power to the people!
have you seen the study of what getting facebook likes does to your brain?
Yeah, that's what I'm saying - it's an addiction, getting high on a dopamine (the same as with drugs). Crazy how they still try to sell you the concept of "being in power", lol.
i tend to think that everything that has ''like''s either it's called faecbook,instagram or steemit can be addictive (high in dopamine) it's just that the first 2 are so popular that have merged with our lives. steemit for now is a really unique place that in most of the cases this phenomenon doesn't apply.
bottom line i think it's once again the person or the user. before i say i more i wanna state that's it's really nice to see girls close to my age that share the same thoughts and want something different for the fake world of facebook,instagram. to come back to what i was saying, i take myself as an example. I use facebook only to talk with my friends and relatives i upload photos mostly never ( i had the same profile pic for 5 years :p ), the others upload photos of me when we are out and when i was asked ''why you don't click like on our pictures'' i reply that "cause i don't like them :P" show me something unique a beautiful view maybe instead of a thousand selfies in the club!
somehow i always end up typing a lot :P
Yeah, exactly :) it's a pitty people start to forget how to experience life without looking at it through the filter of a screen. And thank you for the always lengthy comments, those are the most valuable.
your welcome! still waiting for the approval? hahaha :P
for now don't upvote our comments and in general any comment you are both losing voting power and your votes worth 0$ so nobody wins anything ( it's one of things i wanna explain via chat but i couldn't bare watching you waste it :P )
omg, thanks :))) lol
Whooo this is a great post!!!
"live a more like'able life" That's an amazing quote. I find now, that I have gotten bored with facebook, and insta, but I use it for marketing my school. I did notice some time back that it did start to get addictive ...with no benifit whatsoever. I was just making money for them, and allowing them to farm out my info to advertisers. Great great post.
Since I never used facebook, whatsapp or any social media, I was isolated from this artificial world of self impersonators. (I don't even have a smartphone for good reasons.)
This made me realize in what they call "reallife" how much they would all drift away from the real world. They become a self caricature of their online profile, not able to look inside or feel with other people.
Here, ex-worker of Facebook explains the same thing you say:
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