THE ASSHOLINESS OF SOCIAL MEDIA

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There really is something in mass social media psyche that really skews hard toward assholiness. Just look at a lot of the behavior that you see. Look at twitter and Instagram where you get the old follow you, follow me bullshit. Someone follows you because they want you to follow them. If you don’t follow them back quickly enough, they will quickly unfollow you. Often times, if you do follow them back, you will notice that they stop following you a week or two later.

Why would you do that? It’s pretty shallow behavior. People come up with this concept that they should have more followers than people they follow. That provides them with a smug sense of self importance. They can feel like a big shot. “Look Ma, I have 5,000 followers but I only follow 200 people.” Mama isn’t going to be all that proud if she remembers the values that she raised you to hold. She might even smack you upside the head for publicly confirming that you’re a total douchebag.

I mean, I understand that celebrities are going to have a large fanbase and they aren’t going to be able to follow everyone back. I also understand some people that write professionally or have a business purpose may not be able to follow everyone back. But that doesn’t reflect the general population. It’s usually someone with low self esteem trying to fabricate a false sense of prominence.

It kind of showcases a high degree of selfishness. It does feel good when someone follows you. It does feel good when people like your posts or comments on your posts. Interaction is a lot of fun. But if it feels good for you, doesn’t it stand to reason that it will feel good for the other person, too? You are so self absorbed that you can’t even give a little bit of yourself to others?

If I follow someone on twitter or Instagram, it’s because I found something of value. They might be a talented artist or photographer. They might have an interesting point of view on issues or a great sense of humor. I would love it if they find something of value in what I post. But I’m not going to check in to make sure they follow back. I don’t really care if I have more or less followers. If my sense of self esteem was based on having more followers than people I follow, I would be as much an asshole as they are.

I try to like as many posts as I can. I almost always like pages that are recommended to me. It’s free and it might make the other person feel better about themselves. I would love it if they like me back but I won’t base friendship on whether or not someone appreciates what I write. The reality is that we all make decisions in life. You don’t have to be a douchebag just because the next guy is a douchebag. You can make a conscious decision to be better than that. And wouldn’t the world be a better place if more people did make the decision to be better than the assholes who seem to think having 100K followers is a worthy epitaph for a tombstone.