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Starved for attention, we turn to social media to fill up

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Yesterday I wrote a post about the recent Taco Bell social media fiasco that basically addressed how ridiculous it is that people still make decisions like the kid in that photo. More specifically, they make those decisions for a quick laugh or surge of attention, and it ends up with them losing their job (most likely).

This is the result of one of the major downsides of social media: the resulting vanity and need to “show off’” to your friends and family.

Starved for attention

We have grown accustomed to attention and immediate feedback. We take photos of everything we see or experience that has potential to get people to Like it, retweet it, and comment on it. We need this attention to validate who we are. If we aren’t worth anything in terms of social feedback we feel worthless. This is a huge issue.

I won’t lie, of course I want a lot of people to Like the content I post, but working in social media has helped me learn that it doesn’t really matter all that much. I see the best and worst of what social media brings to the table and I refuse to let myself measure who I am based on my social media returns.

The problem is there are a lot of people who don’t understand how little all of this matters. In the Taco Bell example my best guess is that the kid decided to take that picture because he wanted to show it to friends and get some laughs. And to his friends it was probably funny. Then they forgot about it and moved on to something else. That’s one aspect of social media that hasn’t changed: we have so much content thrown at us constantly that even the funniest or most shocking things we see every day get swept under the rug in just a few days. Can you imagine that happening pre-social media?

This need for attention is harmful and doesn’t do anybody any good. Attention isn’t what gets you to succeed in life, at least the attention you get for doing something juvenile and stupid.

vain woodyAre we drunk on vanity?

From what I’ve described above, it has quite a few parallels to someone who has had a few too many drinks:

  • Poor judgement
  • Lack of processing the probably outcomes
  • Little regard for others
  • Looking like an idiot
  • Regretting your actions the next morning
  • Ending up at Taco Bell (kidding, but true in this one case)

Why are we acting so foolishly? We always are told how bad of an idea it is to over-drink, so why are we doing the social equivalent and  over-posting?

Time to sober up

Social media is an improvement in many ways: how we communicate, our ability to connect (B2C, people to people, B2B, etc.), and how we document our lives. The ability to share who we are with who we want is a powerful one, but “with great power comes great responsibility”, right? Responsibility is something people don’t think about every day when using social media. But it’s an important aspect that can wreak havoc on one’s life if they choose to disregard it.

Maybe it’s time to start teach the new “social responsibility.” What do you think?

The post Starved for attention, we turn to social media to fill up appeared first on All Grown Up.


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