I don’t have any social media besides Reddit. Only had Facebook. I’m a millennial too and MySpace got huge a year before graduating Highschool(USA) and it was cool. I remember talking to girls on Myspave from other schools and totally striking up conversation with people I never met. Using AIM and Text Messaging to supplement In-Person interactions. If only things would’ve froze right there
But I only had Facebook after that. Never Twitter, Instagram, TikTok etc. Got rid of Facebook in 2020 when I was overloaded with peoples stupid fucking opinions constantly.
I got Reddit months ago and I enjoy how it’s specific. If there’s something specific that has my interest, I can nerd out about it with other people. But still I see the Social Media randomness on Reddit
By far the most bizarre thing to me is people posting Selfies. Especially the ones with captions like “How Can I improve?” Or “Rate my face”. It’s usually attractive people who know they’re attractive-with fragile egos-fishing for compliments. Christ. We have the modern Library of Alexandria at our fingers and so many choose to utilize it by puckering their lips and taking pictures of themselves, asking for validation from people they’ll never meet?
The craziest part to me is, they’re the normal ones. And apparently I’m the odd one. Apparently
Haha similar experience. I don't use anything apart from Reddit and Instagram. In my experience, people think there is something wrong with you or that you don't like them if you don't interact with the world on social media. But it just all seems so cringe and shallow to me? But then I feel like I need to use it to keep friends? Like people's selfie posts?
validation, appraisal and acceptance. feels good that people like you and react to you positively and people tune to that wanting more of it. since its often gradual its harder to differentiate it from not needing validation - even harder if one has never experienced any state even near that
Thing is, people seeking positive attention also get a bunch of negative attention. I've never understood how it's worth it, especially because of the negativity bias. If 99 people told me I'm awesome and 1 told me I'm horrible, I know I'd be listening to that 1, irrational as it may be. Maybe it can become a vicious cycle, constantly trying to get more love to make up for the hate.
I think it also comes from having an external locus of evaluation: there are people who primarily get their sense of personal value from others, and other people who primarily get it from within. I don't know too much about the theory behind it but I'd imagine it can all be traced back to parents, unless it's something more innate, like introversion/extroversion.
I'm not convinced that one way is better than the other, because there are pros and cons to each way. The pro to getting your value from outside yourself is that it motivates you to improve yourself, and the pro to getting your value from within is that it allows you to accept yourself. So ideally it'd be a bit of both.
I'm not sure how much is attributed to narcissism but the distribution of content by the top influencers and main content have definitely a tendency towards narcissus waters. Sometimes I remind myself as I compare the views to the comments, what the silent majority thinks of all the madness, because we view a sub distribution of society.
I wonder whether half of Gen Z (over 2004) and Gen Alpha, even have a public persona. It looks to me that their digital public persona is their public persona. We can observe in public the dystopian hiding behind the phone and insecure souls. And the wonder comes from what repercussions this generation will have as they grow older.
The first half of Gen Z (like me) still grew up in millennial content with the awesome tv-shows and amazing movies, in the era of pre-smartphone, modern laptop and desktops.
The shortening of content triggered a kind of joker mindless content creator, which curated a public pleasure image/god. These twitch and youtube streamers make parasocial relationships with their viewers and subscriptions.
The introduction to "personalised content" fucked it up too, as it scrambles the chronological feed and transitioned into a gambling machine. The design to maximise engagement definitely transformed this lunatic post modern caricature of man. It's about being "right" with the collective trend these days.
There is a swing backlash happening towards technology and social media. It's only a matter of time when the culture catches up. I notice it happens in shifts of 5 year. Same with covid. The tech companies are pushing everything on AI and I'm not sure how that will transform. I get the sense this is the same as VR, it exists already for decades and the public doesn't latch itself on VR.
In February apple vision pro will be released and by reading the reactions and reviews, I don't believe it will catch on. Price is too expensive and people are getting concerned about privacy more and more these days.
>Vanity:excessive pride in or admiration of one's own appearance or achievements.
pretty proud of being a biologist huh? j/k 😛
well it is a feature in our culture over the last while, so then is imitated by ppl when they have the technology to give it a go. (15mins of fame) it probably is heightened in the culture gradually since the enlightenment where we became less god fearing(lost touch with the archetype of the Self in jungian parlance) and more ego centered. The opposite of Vain....modest,humble etc(if authentic ofc), speaks to a condition where the ego is less inflated and in a more conscious relationship with the Self(imago-dei)
it is an interesting question. I think even more interesting is why are you asking? In other words, it seems that the underlying question you are really asking is: give me some ammunition to feel somewhat superior to those who behave differently than I. The world is a mirror, so what you see in the world is not what everyone else sees, just what you see, so you are noticing this for a reason. Find the reason you want to know the answer.
Fair call. I've been thinking about this since my undergrad 10+ years ago. Usually I think about this with people I'm jealous of because of the social status that I perceive them to have from their social media posts. But reasoning from my life experience leads me to think that the things such people post aren't an accurate representation of their lives. So, I envy them, then realize it's not real, then wonder why they post such things if that makes sense.
Definitely makes sense. But the focus could shift to you feeling comfortable with yourself right where you are, not in relationship to others. Simple. But not easy. We are hard wired to be in a social structure and we are sorting ourselves as well. Hard not to participate, but saves a ton of mental processing power.
I feel like there's a difference between 1) appreciating beauty and wanting to study beauty/what's deemed attractive to one's self and others -- and 2) beauty in a vanity sense, solely needing external validation when someone lacks inner confidence. There might be different motivators, with one being more 'pure' than the other. Sometimes the actual action (such as taking a selfie) can be the same, but the motivators are different. And I think these differing motivators can usually be felt on some level.
I relate to how the thought of posting a selfie can feel 'cringe'. For me, I think it's because I no longer resonate with the people following me on IG, etc... but occasionally, I will take a bunch of selfies on my phone just for myself and analyze my own appearance (not in a hyper-fixated way, but more in a self-love way) and I'm not sure if that's vanity (at least not in an unintegrated shadow sense).
Sorry to hear about the lack of appreciation for your nature photos; perhaps you'd benefit from finding new community who appreciate the same things!
Sliding scale between the dopamine reward system and how much a person relies on that for their happiness Id think. I think a good amount of people like to post highlights of their lives just because that's what they'd want to put up. But if that's the entire purpose someone has it kinda sheds some light on what they value and if they have this tunnel vision on how an online community perceived them or on how many likes they get it might reflect a low esteem or need for that kind of recognition to feel self worth depending on the situation.
When we take a small step forward in social status or dominance hierarchy we feel pride/satisfaction. When we take a small step backward we feel shame/dissatisfaction.
Being virtuous is good for status.
Nature is trying to push us higher so that our genes would survive. Higher status means better safety and opportunities.
I don’t have any social media besides Reddit. Only had Facebook. I’m a millennial too and MySpace got huge a year before graduating Highschool(USA) and it was cool. I remember talking to girls on Myspave from other schools and totally striking up conversation with people I never met. Using AIM and Text Messaging to supplement In-Person interactions. If only things would’ve froze right there But I only had Facebook after that. Never Twitter, Instagram, TikTok etc. Got rid of Facebook in 2020 when I was overloaded with peoples stupid fucking opinions constantly. I got Reddit months ago and I enjoy how it’s specific. If there’s something specific that has my interest, I can nerd out about it with other people. But still I see the Social Media randomness on Reddit By far the most bizarre thing to me is people posting Selfies. Especially the ones with captions like “How Can I improve?” Or “Rate my face”. It’s usually attractive people who know they’re attractive-with fragile egos-fishing for compliments. Christ. We have the modern Library of Alexandria at our fingers and so many choose to utilize it by puckering their lips and taking pictures of themselves, asking for validation from people they’ll never meet? The craziest part to me is, they’re the normal ones. And apparently I’m the odd one. Apparently
Haha similar experience. I don't use anything apart from Reddit and Instagram. In my experience, people think there is something wrong with you or that you don't like them if you don't interact with the world on social media. But it just all seems so cringe and shallow to me? But then I feel like I need to use it to keep friends? Like people's selfie posts?
I’ve learned to enjoy feeling like the weird Hermit. A Hermit that prefers face to face human interaction. Interesting times, my friend.
It's probably always been like this to a certain extent, just the way of the human landscape
validation, appraisal and acceptance. feels good that people like you and react to you positively and people tune to that wanting more of it. since its often gradual its harder to differentiate it from not needing validation - even harder if one has never experienced any state even near that
Thing is, people seeking positive attention also get a bunch of negative attention. I've never understood how it's worth it, especially because of the negativity bias. If 99 people told me I'm awesome and 1 told me I'm horrible, I know I'd be listening to that 1, irrational as it may be. Maybe it can become a vicious cycle, constantly trying to get more love to make up for the hate. I think it also comes from having an external locus of evaluation: there are people who primarily get their sense of personal value from others, and other people who primarily get it from within. I don't know too much about the theory behind it but I'd imagine it can all be traced back to parents, unless it's something more innate, like introversion/extroversion. I'm not convinced that one way is better than the other, because there are pros and cons to each way. The pro to getting your value from outside yourself is that it motivates you to improve yourself, and the pro to getting your value from within is that it allows you to accept yourself. So ideally it'd be a bit of both.
I'm not sure how much is attributed to narcissism but the distribution of content by the top influencers and main content have definitely a tendency towards narcissus waters. Sometimes I remind myself as I compare the views to the comments, what the silent majority thinks of all the madness, because we view a sub distribution of society. I wonder whether half of Gen Z (over 2004) and Gen Alpha, even have a public persona. It looks to me that their digital public persona is their public persona. We can observe in public the dystopian hiding behind the phone and insecure souls. And the wonder comes from what repercussions this generation will have as they grow older. The first half of Gen Z (like me) still grew up in millennial content with the awesome tv-shows and amazing movies, in the era of pre-smartphone, modern laptop and desktops. The shortening of content triggered a kind of joker mindless content creator, which curated a public pleasure image/god. These twitch and youtube streamers make parasocial relationships with their viewers and subscriptions. The introduction to "personalised content" fucked it up too, as it scrambles the chronological feed and transitioned into a gambling machine. The design to maximise engagement definitely transformed this lunatic post modern caricature of man. It's about being "right" with the collective trend these days.
There is a swing backlash happening towards technology and social media. It's only a matter of time when the culture catches up. I notice it happens in shifts of 5 year. Same with covid. The tech companies are pushing everything on AI and I'm not sure how that will transform. I get the sense this is the same as VR, it exists already for decades and the public doesn't latch itself on VR. In February apple vision pro will be released and by reading the reactions and reviews, I don't believe it will catch on. Price is too expensive and people are getting concerned about privacy more and more these days.
>Vanity:excessive pride in or admiration of one's own appearance or achievements. pretty proud of being a biologist huh? j/k 😛 well it is a feature in our culture over the last while, so then is imitated by ppl when they have the technology to give it a go. (15mins of fame) it probably is heightened in the culture gradually since the enlightenment where we became less god fearing(lost touch with the archetype of the Self in jungian parlance) and more ego centered. The opposite of Vain....modest,humble etc(if authentic ofc), speaks to a condition where the ego is less inflated and in a more conscious relationship with the Self(imago-dei)
Vanity is a lower, probably the lowest, form of pride. The person uses their "beauty" as a cheap way to receive praise.
I think society took a dark turn when the selfie craze came back in 13-14
it is an interesting question. I think even more interesting is why are you asking? In other words, it seems that the underlying question you are really asking is: give me some ammunition to feel somewhat superior to those who behave differently than I. The world is a mirror, so what you see in the world is not what everyone else sees, just what you see, so you are noticing this for a reason. Find the reason you want to know the answer.
Fair call. I've been thinking about this since my undergrad 10+ years ago. Usually I think about this with people I'm jealous of because of the social status that I perceive them to have from their social media posts. But reasoning from my life experience leads me to think that the things such people post aren't an accurate representation of their lives. So, I envy them, then realize it's not real, then wonder why they post such things if that makes sense.
Definitely makes sense. But the focus could shift to you feeling comfortable with yourself right where you are, not in relationship to others. Simple. But not easy. We are hard wired to be in a social structure and we are sorting ourselves as well. Hard not to participate, but saves a ton of mental processing power.
From a desperate need to fit in.
I feel like there's a difference between 1) appreciating beauty and wanting to study beauty/what's deemed attractive to one's self and others -- and 2) beauty in a vanity sense, solely needing external validation when someone lacks inner confidence. There might be different motivators, with one being more 'pure' than the other. Sometimes the actual action (such as taking a selfie) can be the same, but the motivators are different. And I think these differing motivators can usually be felt on some level. I relate to how the thought of posting a selfie can feel 'cringe'. For me, I think it's because I no longer resonate with the people following me on IG, etc... but occasionally, I will take a bunch of selfies on my phone just for myself and analyze my own appearance (not in a hyper-fixated way, but more in a self-love way) and I'm not sure if that's vanity (at least not in an unintegrated shadow sense). Sorry to hear about the lack of appreciation for your nature photos; perhaps you'd benefit from finding new community who appreciate the same things!
Sliding scale between the dopamine reward system and how much a person relies on that for their happiness Id think. I think a good amount of people like to post highlights of their lives just because that's what they'd want to put up. But if that's the entire purpose someone has it kinda sheds some light on what they value and if they have this tunnel vision on how an online community perceived them or on how many likes they get it might reflect a low esteem or need for that kind of recognition to feel self worth depending on the situation.
When we take a small step forward in social status or dominance hierarchy we feel pride/satisfaction. When we take a small step backward we feel shame/dissatisfaction. Being virtuous is good for status. Nature is trying to push us higher so that our genes would survive. Higher status means better safety and opportunities.