Follow Wisely since every Social Platform has Both Kinds of People | post 26
As might have been the case with many, I was confused about the nature of the comments sections on the socially engaging platforms, such as the one coloured sky-blue, or the one coloured the usual blue.
Each morning, our screens might show the pop-ups about who said what to whom and when... without having any logical solution for answering the 'Why?'... You can guess exactly how the day starts, with all such noise.
Not some rocket science, is it?
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| Photo by Daniel Gonzalez on Unsplash [compressed] |
When you start on any social platform, you should take some time to learn its mechanics.
The buttons and the related features are definitely important. But there are other norms, such as not using emojis on any subreddits on Reddit, to the size of pins we put on our boards, on the Pinterest.
I had no ideas, that Pinterest could parse the hashtags the same way like other platforms.
Then, there is Flipboard, on which you can create your own magazines.
While DeviantArt is a great way of contributing to the artists community, GitHub is awesome for the programmers. YouTube is considered the second search engine after Google, literally, and Facebook has billion users.
Twitter gives you real-time tweets, while RSS-Atom Feed Readers are a great way to stay up-to-date with the infotainment sources you follow.
Be it Telegram, Medium, Twitch or Quora; Goodreads or the vast array of Music Streaming Platforms... you can always interact with the others. It takes a little effort to upgrade your Instagram account to a Digital Content Creator account.
And of course, how can we forget Shutterstock, Dreamstime and similar Micro-stock Websites, where you can put your Digital Craft as well as Photography, for a small commission obtained whenever someone downloads your visual media.
We can create an endless list, including Patreon and LinkedIn, Kickstarter and WordPress; but the rationale for the title of this blog post has to be tackled, after all.
Not Every Comment Is Shallow
On any of the platforms mentioned above, your user experience depends on your entire activity history. It is not the comment section, or some trend, that can affect your mood. You are definitely in the control of your eyes, and especially your fingers.
If you or I follow the individuals, or groups, which are clearly not aligning with our perspectives, about what forms the good quality content; then the other users, freely expressing themselves in the comments or on a group, are doing nothing wrong really.
It is totally up to you, how long you want to keep your attention locked in a repetitive loop of the almost-identical content.
Let me elaborate; I was following only News and Trends on the platform of tweets when I had first started out. Before anyone starts laughing, here is the punchline - I thought I was doing the best thing while using Twitter.
A wise human being would have read the news and moved on...
Then there was me, in my college days.
On many levels, we are creating disturbance for others, who have already made up their mind. The number of individuals, whose worldview can never be changed, is not small.
And when we are young, there is some artificial sense of superiority within us, which prevents us from saying 'sorry' or okay, and then just move on with life.
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| Photo by Stillness InMotion on Unsplash [compressed] |
Comments don't feel shallow, to a reader who specifically has a particular taste. No two netizens can agree on one particular form of self-expression; and that can be a good thing occasionally.
Sometimes, Friends become Foes, and vice versa is true as well
The longer you make use of such platforms, more mature you become, in the terms of knowing when not to react. Comments can have many intense debates; sometimes two best friends or close relatives can disagree over some topic with a great intensity.
The way two people look at each other may change, because of a post and a heated conversation.
This is also in the public, so neither party wants to take a soft stance. The self-esteem (or pride) can add up to the conflicts.
However, there are avenues when two individuals are clearly acting like fire and water.
Though this conversation may start out with a trailer of some hypothetical wrestling match; after some exchanges, both sides realize that the opposing views differ from their beliefs only by a slight margin.
You can have become friends with someone, with whom you transacted the vocabulary from an inappropriate style of communication.
How to Choose whom to Follow on Social Platforms
As I am not really a noob on some of the platforms mentioned above, let me note a tiny fact for you...
The 'Number of Followers' and Likes may not represent real unique users. You have to check different user profiles, (if the list of Followers or Subscribers is visible).
Ask these questions, if you want to understand if the User Profile really represents a reasonably honest normal human being. Even if you cannot see the list of the Followers or Subscribers, these a few self-doubts should assist you.
- The date of the Oldest Post?
- The actually meaningful comments? (excluding the hollow repetitive praise)
- Do you truly believe that following that profile will help you with something?
When I am talking about the interesting or meaningful people on the social platforms, please bear in the mind that, following a lot of the look-good or feel-good individuals will only repeat the similar ideas with a different schedule.
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| Photo by Julio Rionaldo on Unsplash [compressed] |
An average person can have something meaningful to say, and a person with a body made up of diamonds, may just recite the same poetry with different synonyms.
The Process of Selecting whom to follow is really about Self-identification
Learning about the different types of online scams or manipulative content creators is a long journey. This author himself was a few microseconds away from falling in a Multi-Level Marketing scam.
The person I was following, was sharing a lot of good quality food for thought using the phrases like 'financial freedom' and 'assets-based mentor-driven business growth'.
We had a phone call, and we discovered many overlapping interests as well. See, I used to have a soft-spot for the concepts such as -
- Continuous Lifelong Learning
- Self-Regulated Learning
- Frequent Up-skilling
- Live-Project Training
- Asset-building
- Future-proofing
- Risk Management
- Scalable Business Models
- Growth-boosting
And such words are not evil in any manner, if they were to be understood as Concepts or Principles of living a (financially as well as emotionally) resilient life. There is no problem in these ideas themselves.
But...
An Architect, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was attributed for the idea, "The God is in the detail."
As much as I like the Architectural Principles taught to us in the Civil Engineering curriculum, if you have ever tried to make sense of the Insurance or Loan Documents, Privacy Policies or Copyright Policies, Contracts or Laws... you can understand what "The devil is in the detail" implies.
Just like the small-font lettering of Terms-and-Conditions or the hidden clauses; if someone tries to show you a dream with a business model, which you don't know about, do your home-work first!
I was able to identify my own weaknesses; like an idiot, I used to treat my love for 'Lifelong Learning' or 'Financial Freedom' like a strength. This is what you can become, if you don't understand a simple point...
You have Choice!
No, you are not going to Miss Out on something important
FoMO, or Fear of Missing Out, might prevent you from reducing your on-screen time. While digital well-being is a great concept, the onus is still lying on your shoulders.
In my case, whenever choosing to Unfollow or to Mute someone, there is no such fear. I don't have any attachment with the Number of Likes, Views or Subscribers.
If I create something which can be meaningful for someone on a regular basis, they will follow or subscribe to me if they feel like it. That is NOT compulsory to anyone. And in the same manner, I will continue to eat well, sleep well, exercise well and read the good things.
We all have our personal lives; and there is no reason why any number or comment should interrupt our attention towards our life.
Imagine if I were to spend all my time retweeting the old posts...
I wouldn't be able to come up with this post. You can benefit from putting your phone aside, to solve problems or plan ahead, using the old-school pen and paper. We both can enhance our user experience by being selective about what we wish to see in our Inbox or Playlists, Feeds or Notification Panels.
At the end of the day, don't waste your time for convincing a total stranger how right you are.
And more importantly, keep in the mind that the number of Likes or Followers may not be what we might be led into believing.
Just because someone is popular; you don't have to follow them, and just because someone you followed, has approached you, don't ignore the red-flags indicating a potential fraud or a wasteful use of your energy.
