I recently thought about this, and I really wanted to share with you my point of view on this matter (I mean, not that my point of view is transcendent but I still want to put this down somewhere, and what better place to do so than here!)
You see, I feel like social media is messing up our brains... and also our relationships with others, and the things that we choose to give importance to.
This came to my mind yesterday, as I sat there, in the middle of the craziest discussion I've ever been a part of.
One of my friends was fighting with me because I decided to
SHARE A POST SHE SHARED ON FACEBOOK, WITHOUT LEAVING HER ANY COMMENTS OR LIKES
Yup.
The woman was fighting with me because it hurt her that I didn't interact with her post before posting it myself to my own Facebook wall.
Now, I usually try to understand these types of things, because I have practically grown up with social media around me, and the Internet has always been a very big part of my life, but this situation in particular proved itself to be very hard to wrap my mind around it.
She was mad because I shared a post that none of us were the author of without commenting on her post first.
The discussion began pretty lighthearted, with "memes" included, but things began to escalate quickly as I seemed to not care about the fact that she was mad because of a post.
Basically what she told me was that she gave a lot of importance to the interactions she gets on social media, because they mean something special to her, because it means that the people who give her the likes and comments validates her and cares for her.
Ehhh... Okay
Now, don't get me wrong, I have a lot of affection for the woman, I care about her and her well-being, but she crossed a line with that train of thought that made me think of a lot of things; but it especially made me think about the fact that nowadays we are giving a lot of importance to the ways we interact with each other on social media platforms.
We give so much importance to likes and comments, pokes, views and reblogs. They are getting a hold of us in a way that I never thought would be possible, even driving people to harm themselves or even suicidal behaviours, because the impact of our online interactions is increasing more and more as the days pass, since more and more people are giving it an insane amount of importance.
Maybe the only way those interactions would count would be if you were making money out of them, and even then... To obsess over them is never really a good thing.
We must start to think about the way we feel towards our social media platforms, and ask ourselves some questions like these:
-How would I feel if I stayed a day without my social media?
-Could I survive a week, or even a month without checking my likes or views?
And the more important one:
-Am I equating likes and comments on social media to real love from the people around me? Am I replacing that love for likes?
It's vital that we check ourselves from time to time in this era where techonology is ruling our worlds and minds, and think about this subject for a second, before taking on these irrational behaviours and possibly ruining friendships for something so silly and futile as a Facebook interaction.
Now, I really want to know your opinion about this subject:
Do you think it's okay to have a discussion or a fight over a like (or lack thereof) on social media?
Let me know!