Hey, I Want to be Famous
Many former Vine users may recognize the face of this little girl who gained social attention after stating, “Hey! I want to be famous” in a six second Vine video. While she was too young to probably understand what she is saying, the perceived notion of being famous starts at a very young age…
Social media is a dangerous game. It’s dangerous for both our generations and all the generations to come. With its rapid growth, social media has gained the ability to influence everybody in some way or another… And in some cases that relates to how we understand self-worth.
Vanity metrics, like followers and likes, are key components in understanding self-worth through social media. For those who use applications like Instagram and Twitter, your social outreach becomes bigger as you gain more followers. But, by growing your outreach you also expose yourself to other potential defects like location-following and hate.
From what I understand, having thousands of followers on Instagram usually means one of two things:
a) You’re Physically Attractive
b) You’re Entertaining
So, if you have lots of followers, it must mean you are one of those two things, both very nice compliments to have. We as a society often measure the value of someone through their online following and the attention they garner from it.
Personally, I know that gaining more followers and getting more likes on a picture makes me feel good about myself and boosts my self-confidence. As a teenager going through elementary, high school and now university, I continue to think this way because of how society has shaped people to perceive social media statistics.
We see these “Instagram Models” who have shot to fame with thousands of followers, simply because they are pretty. The grab the attention of users because they post appealing photos of themselves across the platform simply to attract attention.
Take Instagram and YouTube personality Tammy Hembrow for example. While it appears she has no real talent, other than maybe working out, she has racked up an insane following on Instagram because she is a very pretty girl with a kick ass body.
While I have nothing against Tammy, I don’t believe it is healthy for young girls to see this representation of women who are still relatively around their age. By having so many followers and getting so many likes on individual pictures of her, it gives the idea that in order to be pretty you have to take pictures like this and get thousands of likes.
It is troublesome that we have started to grow up with this pre-conceived notion that our social value is directly correlated to how many people follow our accounts, but how do we try to stop and change this for the generations to come?
Social media has become such a large part of our lives and the way we use it has shifted so dramatically. I do not believe we will ever not value the feedback we receive through social media, but I do believe we should be doing a better job sheltering younger generations from the social implications it can have.
Though I can not offer up some way that we as a society could better ourselves into how social media metrics affect us, I do believe that there should be stricter guidelines into who can use certain apps and when they can use them. But, as mentioned before, it has gotten to a point that social media is bigger than us in every aspect, which makes it challenging to understand the
Because I have been active online and been surrounded by likes and follows since I was just twelve years old, all I have known is that you’re more important and better looking if you have more followers and get more likes. It’s a twisted way of thinking, but it is one that is embedded into our generation.
