Like many things in life, we can just enumerate all the cases.
Why do people post?
- Narcissism: for attention
- Presence/Networking: to promote a brand, shop, business, writer, musician, etc.
- Friends: people who actually use social media to see what friends are up to, and feel genuinely happy for them. feel like these people have 500-600 people max on Instagram
- Self-expression: to throw ideas into the crowd because they are compelled to share to the world. the other hand is socially unaware people post pointless things that everyone ignores
- Connect: to meet new people with similar hobbies and ideas
- Levels: to give the perception that their lifestyle is a certain “level” to attract other people. that they’re busy, that they’re doing something, that they got cool stuff going on. variant of ‘connect’, but worse
- Additive: create things because they’re useful for other people
- Alliance: to reaffirm social bonds
- Showcase/Portfolio
Why do people use?
- Contact: for keeping in touch with friends when a phone number doesn’t suffice. seeing what they’re up to
- Inspiration/Information: for collecting information from other sources to see how they live their lives
- Research: variant of the above
- Entertainment/Distraction/Addiction
- Coordination: coordinate an event, advocacy, etc.
- FOMO
The issue with social media is the perverted idea that being ‘good’ or ‘notable’ or ‘popular’ will lead to others being attracted to you, thus giving you “high rank.” In reality, you can’t escape your background, and people can usually see the level and rate of progress you’re at.
If you accept your inadequacy or don’t care (it’s actually very hard for people to naturally not care), then using social media becomes easy. People are trying to carve out a space for themselves, but most people aren’t that good. Attention is limited. At some point you realize what “level” in life you’re at, and no amount of photos in Instagram will fix that.
If people actually used social media correctly such as posting their random plants, they wouldn’t care how everyone looks at you. There is a small group of people just into plants.
Most people aren’t that good. Most people need some sort of identity, like what school they go to at first, and maybe they parlay it into a career/presence page or cease posting. Most people go through childhood thinking that they’re special or unique, then they hit a global world.
if u just posted whatever ur normal life is and accepted your undifferentiation, you wouldn’t feel unhappy. if you didn’t care about spending time around a certain type of person and were able to enjoy time with anyone, it wouldn’t matter. but it’s unrealistic. people want to spend time around people they perceive are similar to them rather than being curious and trying to understand others. and in one way, only people who reached the highest levels can afford to do that.
people go through childhood thinking that they’re special or unique, then they hit a global world.
i mean, i think the problem is a lack of differentiation. people don’t really know themselves or what they stand for.
imo, order of social medias in terms of competence and ability and career focus:
highest tier:
- personal website, mailing lists
next highest tiers:
- tiktok, linkedin, twitter
medium:
- instagram, facebook
lowest tier:
- snapchat