The Reality of People on Social Media
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
On all social media platforms, there are two types of people, and people who are a mix of the two.
One: People who believe what they have to say deserves an audience.
Two: People who find value in what other users produce.
It really is as simple as that.
Bloggers, and people with Twitter, Facebook and any other social media account fall into one of those two groups. People who say they write/post for themselves, but put it on the internet, are lying. If they posted purely for themselves they would write it in a journal. The act of putting something on the universe's most public medium, the internet, denotes some intrinsic hope of a person other than yourself, consuming your content.
Even those of us who complain constantly about the mundaness of the majority of people's content still continue to log on, and read it. If zero value was found in consuming other's content, we wouldn't look at it at all. Value is defined as a fair return or equivalent in goods, services, or money for something exchanged. Regardless of complaint, we exchange time out of our life for the perusal of what others place on their social media stage. Even if we complain about it's uselessness, we exchange our time for it.
We are in an era where it is relatively easy for someone who believes they have something of importance to say (whether they do or not) to have a platform to say it, and an audience to consume it.
Good points, I think when bloggers (my-self included) say they blog for themselves they mean they are doing it because they find it fun to do so & are not doing it for money/job. I mean I blog to share, so of course I want people to read lol. Otherwise I agree with you totally. I find that you have a very down to earth view on social media & I like reading you posts on the subject (as well as the rest of you posts lol)
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by, I'm glad you like the blog! :-)
DeleteI think everyone starts out blogging for themselves. It morphs into a need to be heard though. That almost makes blogging and various social media outlets a cry for help, doesn't it? I'm probably more the first type of blogger/user, though I hate to say I deserve anything. It's just nice to have someone's attention and have responses to thoughts/stories bouncing around in your head.
ReplyDeleteI suppose it can be a cry for help in a way lol. The interaction is great, especially the thought of interaction with people who without social media, you would probably never have come across.
DeleteSometimes it surprises me that anyone reads what I have to say. I am definitely more "I want people to read this" maybe 60/40 but I am trying to even that out to a 50/50 by making an effort to really sit down and read what other people have to say - rather than skimming it and whatnot. There are a lot of really wonderful blogs out there. What's cool is if you stumble upon someone whose writing style you like because then its like reading a book except you can interact with the author and it's constantly updated.
ReplyDeleteI too want to cut down on my skimming, it's just that I follow SO MANY blogs at this point, I get anxiety when my unread number is too high!
ReplyDeleteWell said...
ReplyDelete