I apologize for not posting the past few days. If I’m being honest, I’ve been hiding out in my brain. Seriously. My mind has been engaged in some deep thinking and I sometimes get annoyed by that but I’m learning to just go with it. I can’t shake it.
So, please excuse the past few days.
Earlier, I was going through my different social media profiles, snickering, in my mind of course, and how … mundane yet time-consuming social media-ing can be. We sift through tons of feeds–whether it be Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, [insert platform], or all of them–and aside from our really close friends, who is really going to notice that you contributed the 330 something “like.” Is eonline really going to notice you just liked their Alec Baldwin picture they posted to Instagram?
It almost feels like a popularity contest too. You need to list the most interesting, the most funny, the most thoughtful, the [insert whatever] to be noticed. How else are you going to rake in 50+ likes, let alone 20?
And then I found myself asking “why do we do it? Why do I do it?”
Really struck at me, that question did. This is what I’ve come up with.
- It’s fun. As much as I feel it’s a time-suck, it’s a fun time suck. You read funny memes, laugh when some shares an embarrassing moment or a very true statement, find witty commentary.
- It’s educational. There’s a lot, and I mean a lot, of pointless information floating on social media, even idiotic, but there’s also educational things as well. I peek at Mental Floss’ FB page every now and then. And when you stop to think about, it’s rare that you won’t be able find a company linked to social media in someway or other.
- It’s relatable. How many times have we found ourselves nodding at a post or agreeing with a meme that popped up in your photo feed. We flock to things that interest us and we’re estatic to find that connection because we can relate to it. Whether it be surfing, a book, a movie. We gravitate towards thing we can relate to.
- It’s different. After heading down to the movie theatre on a Froday night for years, social media allows us a different avenue to “hang.” With chat features, group features, games and the like, social media is different from the traditional social events. It’s also different in the sense that there’s variety. If you don’t need the bless and whistles and want to keep things simple, there’s Twitter and Instagram. Even Tumblr can be grouped in there. The you have more complex platforms like FB. There’s blogging platforms, things like GoodReads or WattPad. Different.
It’s a list in progress of course and feel free to add any reasons why we social media (verb).
It just makes me wonder …