Online platforms are built to receive instant gratification. Within seconds of posting you can receive likes , comments, shares etc on the content you posted. Let’s face it, getting over 100 likes in less than in hour with comments from your followers feels pretty good, almost like receiving a hug or high five from a friend. In today’s digital world, posting is out of control and in my opinion, this instant gratification is hindering self-esteem and creating false identities for ourselves as we become addicted and emotionally invested in the response from our online followers.
Boyd dedicates a chapter of his book “ It’s complicated” to addiction and identifies how teens can become addicted to social media just as someone could become addicted to gambling or drugs. Allison Graham in her Ted talk “How social media makes us unsocial” speaks to online posting as only a representation of an idyllic life and goes on to make a statement that the number of likes represents our self-esteem. Based on these two ideas, one could argue that many are emotionally invested in what they post, only post what they believe is “worthy” of likes and are addicted to the response they receive from the online world. In my opinion, this is essentially creating an identity crisis and a negative mental health epidemic.
To better articulate my point of view, I found a great short film that I believe captures what I believe is taking over individual lives everyday as they continue to obsess over their social media pages. please watch the short film " A Social life" by Kerith Lemon.
If you reflect on your own activity, have you ever posted a cool new photo and catch yourself checking the app over and over again to see if the likes have increased? I know I have. Have you ever deleted a photo from your feed because it did not get the amount of likes you wanted? Have you ever posted a photo with slogans such as “so excited”or “best day of my life” when really that is a total lie? It’s interesting to think about what type of activity we choose to post that is not fully representative of our lives and become addicted to how the online world will react.
To conclude, I will say I believe we have some re-wiring to do with regard to our emotional and mental attachment to social media posting and recognize that we need to let go of the need to feel accepted by the online world and remember who we are as individual beings. I am not saying that posting online should be removed or banished but more the idea that if you do choose to post, you post it in full confidence because you want to and not because you are looking for gratification from others.
References:
Boyd, Dana. (2014). It’s Complicated: the social lives of networked teens. New Haven, CN: Yale University Press
Graham, Alison (2014) How Social media makes us unsocial (https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=9&v=d5GecYjy9-Q&feature=emb_title)
Kerith Lemon Productions (2016) A Social Life ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXdVPLj_pIk )