“Attention is the New Currency”
#WOKE
Social media has become who we are. It has become the entity that praises our very best days, an entity that puts a person to a name and has become what we stand for (whether true or false). Much like that in elementary school where it was a constant game of who likes who best, who had the coolest shoes or even who had more friends; we’re re-enacting the challenges we assumed we grew out of years ago. Our very own personal merit relies upon the value we insist upon likes, follows, retweets, comments, and so on. Our online engagement and presence ultimately catapults ourselves into a well-liked driven lifestyle where people will judge and praise status based on the amount of response you receive off your latest selfie.
As an engagement site at the finger tips of nearly everyone, the merit of social status is much stronger than ever before. Push back 20 years, any positive or affirmative recognition one would receive would likely be discussed through close friends and family, likely the same 10 people you would see every other day. Fast forward to today, people are connected to those they met standing at the bus stop for 10 minutes waiting for their ride and that’s it. There’s no real connection minus the ties crossed for the brief moments under the covered pavilion. But yet there is the difference, we crave the recognition from nearly anyone and everyone as a result of being interactive with so many individuals through one site. The moment one person receives the higher social value, the more well liked they become. They will gain more friends, more people will interact with their content, their social and personal value rises; it becomes what we strive to be.
Yet, social media’s constant realm of praise is what it, itself, stands for. The likes, comments, shares, and retweets is what keeps the sites running. With our day and extreme presence of mental health, it has been commonly linked to the appearance of social media. People only display their best lives, the ones they want everyone to believe is what constantly goes on with the laughs, friends, dream vacations, and ultimately their dream lives. It’s an unrealistic fantasy world that people strive for and put blame on themselves when they feel they have not reached the same value or merit as the people/persons they compare themselves with.
The Huffington Post made a strong argument. They encountered the idea of addiction when it comes to social media but not as articulated as it sounds. Social Media has a Pendulum Effect. We praise those we encounter online in return for the praise we receive. It has become a back and forth game of affirmation that proves to ourselves we are more self conscious- whether knowingly or not, than ever.
But what does this mean in terms of societal value?
At this point, it has been proven that our online world derails our every idea of who each person or entity really is. It has revolutionized our culture and the ways we know how to communicate within society. Social Media value has taken over business strategies; catapulting their strengths, gaining value and reaching audiences they perhaps never thought imaginable. Politicians and senates now have to fight against the entertainment industry to best govern nation states as a result of elections being favoured by the buzz and confirmation seen in our online society. Everyday citizens can enrich their academic and occupational fields with the ease of online career sites like that of LinkedIn in which we enable ourselves. Social Media also draws the presence of cyber bullying; a form practically introduced at the birth of these social platforms. Evidently, it has tapped into our everyday lives as a means of addiction to get further. We all strive to be the best possible versions of ourselves, but yet, whether it be businesses, job titles, or mere social status, value ultimately depends upon the status and responses we receive online. No longer is it an economy of currency exchange to merit ones value but an economy wrapped around a hunger for attention.
