Social Media – A funny Phenomenon

Don’t know if I should say it boldly or with a certain degree of timidity, I admit, I have had an active presence in Social Media for the past few years, particularly, in Facebook and WhatsApp. On the flip side of this indulgence, is, getting an opportunity to re-unite, albeit, virtually, with long lost friends and classmates. Some of those associations do cross the barriers of virtuality, and became very real and personal. Old days are back with sweet vengeance, and it is an absolute delight to turn back to those pages in life, which were so full of……. life. This, by no means, is a small thing! To begin with, this did reiterate the fact that humanity is still alive and kicking.

However, it is the “flop side”, that is the point of discussion in this post. I have tried putting down some of my observations, and the possible reasons behind the phenomenons observed:

Phenomenon – “Pictures, Videos, and Selfies garner maximum attention, irrespective of the quality of the post”.

Reason – Mankind, in general is suffering from lack of “attention span”. Anything that demands more time, is better left alone. Pictures and Selfies are quite yielding in this respect. To just have a glance does not take more than a second! Hence they are very much acceptable to be liked or commented. A click on the like button takes fraction of a second, and the typical comment length for these is usually less than 4 words, which would probably take 3 – 4 seconds. Hence, spending this 5 seconds gives one a chance to fulfil the obligation of establishing your presence, and proving to the individual (who posted) that he / she is being remembered. Very cost effective (where quantum of cost is measured in seconds spent)!!

Phenomenon – “Public show of affection to family members. Husband expressing love to his wife, and vice-versa on FB, or Parents expressing their love for the kids etc., even when all concerned parties are living under the same roof”

Reason – One-on-one interactions have somehow petered down lately. Spending “in-person” time seemingly fails “Cost-Benefit Analysis”. Moreover, you cannot reach out to the bigger audience, if you just say the same thing to your spouse or kid in the privacy of your home. Hence, post it on FB. The world would know how caring / loving you are and would acknowledge it with lot of superlative expressions (both “Whao”, “Love it”, “God bless” as well as ever increasing range of emojis). Gives one a heady feeling of upliftment. So very cost effective!

Phenomenon – “Liking your own posts”. I would rather call it “Self Gratification”

Reason – Love of yourself. One can’t take chances to have a barren post, right. What if no one responds! Hence like your post, so that others “browsing runners” may just take a breather and click on the like button even without reading or going through the post. Basically setting the “Inertia of motion”!

Phenomenon – “Hit the like, even if you don’t understand a bit of it”

Reason – Just to let the other party know that you were there! Because, you would know that the person who posted would keep on going back to the post at a regular interval to check the number of likes and comments! I would call it, leveraging other’s “self gratification”.

The post has already become quite long, and I don’t expect too many to read through the post till end. Hence, I would stop here, and wait for comments and repartees! That would be my way of demonstrating “self gratification”. Cheers!!!