Living for the "Likes"

 I recently stumbled upon my first post on social media. It was when I was 12-years-old and went behind my parents back to  create a Facebook  account. I set my profile picture as a candy bar and wrote as follows "Today was a good day...nothing bad happend" not only was I great at spelling, I was also really creative. This discovery as embarrassing as it was, got me thinking about social media as a whole. Why did I post that status and who was I even talking to ?

I may never know the answers to these questions, but, what I do know is that I posted the status for attention. That is the purpose of social media, to get and give attention. As I see more and more "selfies" and vague sad statuses on social media I wonder if people have become reliant on the attention their posts give them. "Likes" have become a commodity with people going to extreme measures to get them.

My lovely view

With the need for likes come habits that impede socialization and society. One habit that really gets on my nerves is the "Selfie-stick". The selfie-stick allows its users to be the most obnoxious people wherever they go. That may be an overstatement but it isn't far from the truth.

When I was on vacation in Europe, I felt the effects of the selfie-stick first hand. This was due to the fact that there was a group of tourists in the same group as me. They brought their selfie-sticks everywhere, causing my view to be obstructed. Instead of enjoying their surroundings they were busy capturing a photo(with them in it) to prove to their followers that they were there.

I am not the only one that noticed the gap between being present in your surroundings and using your phone to record photos for social media. At the last concert I was at the lead singer of the band stopped midway through a song and announced angrily to the crowd "Put your f*****g phones away and enjoy the music, live in the f******g moment!"

While that announcement was quite graphic it got the point across.

I am concerned for what the future of social media holds. The more people are focused on getting "Likes" the less concerned they are for their own sense of identity. People are becoming scared to have an unpopular belief or stand up against popular opinion. Will the future be filled with mindless statuses to get attention?

As I write this post, I want to let you know that I am not better than anyone else. I have posted pictures and then promptly removed them if they didn't get enough "Likes" I have also taken a few selfies in my day. I understand the rush you get when someone "Likes" your photo. That's the problem, the Likes are addicting. The best hope for change is to put a conscious effort into living for yourself and not for the likes.

Fin.