Social Media Culture

Social media networks are widespread on the internet. However, this experience is good for some people but very bad for others. The bad experiences often lead to hightened states of depression. Social media invariably is all about popularity. But, this popularity is also overshadowed by not only influence but also the level of negative sentiments one can receive from people. In most cases, the person that subscribes or follows a person is totaly a stranger. This strangeness and unfamilarity of people leads to a very cold and defensive state of interaction especially among women. Removing someone from your follower/subscriber count may mean nothing for one person while could mean the world to another. In other cases, not getting reply from a person can be quite an issue for others. Other cases might involve blocking which the person might take quite personally. In general, people of celebrity status have had it quite easy as they already can gain plenty of followers from just influence or even hiring a separate marketing agency to manage their social accounts. However, other people likely would have to work towards it. People often may only reply to you based on your popularity as that would increase their follower count. Social media also seems to be a network of hierarchies. In many cases, it reflects the way people climb the social ladder, in associating with people who are more popular or influencial. When people get a very high follower or subscriber count they also have a tendency of becoming quite bigheaded and proud of their achievement. You never really know whether you are talking to a human or a bot on social media. And, whether someone's post is a scheduled post or something they directly replied to. In fairness, this could also be a reason why so many people are less empathetic. Social media as a result tends to be more about playing the game. It also seems to be a very cold place to hang out. Some people obviously don't care for popularity, influence, nor take the whole experience that seriously and this likely also negatively impacts their experience. Often the way the person looks also effects their popularity. Social media networks tend to be a breeding ground for shallow people, like an ego network. Recommendations are also geared towards popularity of content which further compounds the biases. No doubt social media can be addictive. But, it has also become a battle ground for people who want to display their frustrations, their hypocrisy, and be who they want to be outside of the confines of the real world. This often leads to some people being very unempathetic towards the people they interact and communicate, often with an unconscious bias. In many respects, social media reflects the real world, only worse. It also can be an opportunity to take a glimpse through the looking glass as to the reality of character and ideological mindset of people, especially as so many feel they can say whatever they like and treat people however they like without much regard for consequence. They are also great for mining data and analyzing human behavior. Take a step away from social media and see how the world suddenly feels simpler, more productive, likely less stressful, and frustrating.