Not About the Likes
What immediately comes to mind when I hear the word “metrics” is the measuring of inanimate objects. For instance, figuring out the dimensions of a bedroom or table. When I hear the words “self-worth”, the same imagery doesn’t come to mind.
Our self worth is a delicate perception of ourselves. So, why do we as a society use a form of metrics, cold hard numbers, to determine our self worth? This form of metrics is the accumulation of “likes” and “retweets”. We use this type of data as justification for what we do and how we act. This type of data becomes just as valuable to us as a compliment from our best friend. We should share things on social media because we want too, not because we want people to approve of us.
We begin to take metric data so seriously that psychologists have discussed the negative effects social media has on our mental health. According to psychologist Emma Kenny who spoke to Catriona Harvey-Jenner from Cosmopolitan, “if you believe that other people’s opinions are facts, your esteem will be low, your confidence will be terrible and you’ll constantly seek approval. If you’re somebody who deletes posts because they’re not getting the reinforcement, that plays into all of those negatives”. This is not all. She also said “when you’re reliant on social media, it can increase insecurity issues and create a sense of paranoia. It can increase depression and enable us to feel like other people’s lives are so much better than ours”. These comments from Dr. Kenny are saddening because they really do come true.
https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/reports/a9931660/psychology-social-media-likes-mental-health-issues/
Her comments are proven as people have written about quitting social media and the happiness that gave them. For example, Emma Fierberg from Business Insider wrote an article stating that quitting social media for a month was the best choice she’s ever made. Fierberg expanded on the better sleep she had, the extra hours she got back for doing things like cooking and reading, the ways she dealt with her emotions, and the realization that FOMO isn’t a thing if you aren’t constantly swiping through posts. To me, this experiment sounds mentally refreshing.
When thinking about our society’s obsession with social media, my mind jumps to the television series The Orville. There was an episode entitled Majority Rule which gives viewers a fictitious look at what things could be like if our society was run by social media dynamics. In Majority Rule, the Sargus-4 society developed a voting system based off of “up” and “down” votes. Think of this system as using Facebook’s “like” and “dislike” features. In the video below, the Orville’s crew member John learns about the consequences of the “down” votes he received when the crew first arrived at Sargus-4.
Although this episode is fictional, it takes inspiration from real world situations. I think we should use this episode as an indication of what we never want our society to turn into.
Let’s not forget to not live our lives based off of likes. What we should focus on is not letting a metric count ruin our mood. I also think we should take the time to research the negative effects of using social media. This is so that we can use our accounts without losing our true sense of self.
