How do we measure our value in this technological age?
Prompted by a friend to discuss this topic, I began to wonder what the significance of 'likes,' 'favorites,' or 'retweets' has come to hold in present day. I do not think anyone can deny that they have some place in our everyday lives if it ever once was denied. Our social media persona, while separate from our real persona, is starting (if it has not already) to integrate into our everyday lives because social media takes up a large part our of day. We spend hours day in and day out checking our news feeds, letting our followers know what we are up to, reading, liking, stalking, etc, etc. I think the list could go on forever, as there are so many various platforms and functions within each one.
So what happens to our perceived self-worth and value when social media is so ingrained into our lives? How did people before our technological age measure that same worth and value? They did what many of us still do, they compiled their accomplishments, personality traits, religion, family, reputation, and many other aspects that did not necessarily involve social media (assuming because they just did not have the access that we have).
I guarantee that I am not the only one who has deleted something off of my social media platforms because it did not reach the 'popularity' that I was expecting. Now, I usually like to keep a good distance between my 'IRL' and social media persona, so I tend to keep my posts relatively impersonal. I like to post funny or pictures of cute cats. I would say that those two kind of posts constitute 80%-ish percent of my social media platforms. Even still, I have posted stuff before that I took down because it did not get a like or favorite within, say five minutes. Without the validation from just one person, I feel like my social media face, and therefore my real life face (because they are undeniably integrated), are being threatened.
There has to be a significant portion of the time that we spend on social media where we are simply deciding what to post, how to caption it, and when to release it. Even this platform for which I am using to write this very article gives each writer a goal on the amount of reads we get. Every one of us puts deliberate, even if it may be unconscious, thought into what we share with our friends and followers. Our self-worth and value is increasingly becoming external, leaving it up to our peers to measure it.
Never will I be able to successfully propose that everyone should stop caring about our social media persona. If in vain or not, I still want to say that the amount of likes you or I get does not matter. It does not matter. Extrospectively, our social media profiles have, shockingly, zero worth. Our value are NOT measured by other people. Take it back into your own hands.
