A Work in Progress: A Memoir by Franta Connor

Author:Franta, Connor [Franta, Connor]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, azw
Publisher: Atria/Keywords Press
Published: 2015-04-21T04:00:00+00:00

Numb to the Numbers

THE SOCIAL GENERATION has taken over. If you don’t tweet on the daily, receive dozens of likes on Instagram photos, and know what the heck Tumblr is, then you best get to Googling because you’ve been left behind.

Or you’re, like, forty. It seems that every person in our ever-connected world is on some form of social media. (If you’re one of the few who isn’t, I applaud you. Stay. Away. That shit is more addictive than a fresh jar of Nutella on a lonely Friday evening.) Our lives are never offline, and we’re permanently logged in. One foot in the moment, one foot somewhere else entirely. In this cyber-reality—one in which we can now wear and carry our computers at all times—it’s difficult not to get caught up in the bubble of “likes,” thumbs-ups, ratings, comments, and general Internet chatter—and therein lies THE TRAP for our self-esteem. The trap that awaits us all: the importance of being liked.

As a generation, we seem to glean a sense of validation from the numbers, for reasons I don’t entirely understand. I read somewhere that a popular post or photo rewards us with a rush of endorphins—hence the addiction. It’s science, people. Don’t deny it. What’s clear is that the higher the number of likes—or retweets—the better the feeling. But the importance attached to it is false. None of us should measure our self-esteem or popularity by numbers. Social media is the most warped mirror to look into.

I’m the first to admit that I’m over the moon if I receive over 100,000 likes on a YouTube video. Hitting that number makes me feel that I’ve created content that’s pretty darn good and something I should be proud of. When I stop to truly think about it, that’s a huge number of clicks! Think about it: 100,000 unique people watched my video and decided it worthy of taking two extra seconds to move their mouse cursor over the little green thumbs-up button and . . . CLICK! That’s incredible to me.

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