Social Media…. What’s it good for?
A rant by @theruthlessproject
Funny question, I know. What’s the point? Connecting with friends? Talking with people you used to know who now live thousands of miles away? Maybe. Clout? Where does that get you?
We use social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, just to name a couple, to showcase our lives, or our photos. Maybe you’re promoting a business or side hustle. That’s all great, but what happens when you don’t get the results you thought you would, not because your photo sucks or your product goes against “community guidelines” but because you put the wrong hashtag. Or maybe you had a bad word in your caption or a trigger word in your video? Then what?
If you go against the masses you get put on a shadow ban. What is that you ask? Well, that’s when you’re not really banned but the algorithms stop your posts from being seen by people. These platforms stop promoting and showing your posts, even the ones that follow you. Ridiculous, I know I’ve been there.
So what does that do to us? Well for some, they may just shrug it off. For others, those that are using Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, etc. to give themselves a sense of accomplishment, it hurts. You may start feeling like no one likes your content that your putting out there, or that the thing you spent weeks tinkering with until you’re happy enough with the results to show the world and sell, seems not to get any attention making, you feel like it’s a piece of crap and no one likes it. Or maybe, you think they just don’t like you.
The stress of pleasing the algorithms can take a toll on someone’s mental health. Even the people, your friends and followers, when you don’t get the interaction with your posts you get to a point in your head where you feel like it’s pointless to put in all this work for a photo or a product just to get passed by or ignored.
We’ve become so dependent on it, for some or most it’s a habit. A bad one. You just pull out your device hoping for a notification that a bunch of people liked
your post. You end up neglecting the real life.
The community you once thought of as thriving and welcoming has turned kind of cold. The interactions have dwindled, the posts have become redundant, and the experience for lack of better words, kind of sucks. I miss the old days when there was pocket checks and challenges every other week. I miss the inspiration from seeing the beautiful photos. Now we’re just stuck seeing videos or reels because that’s what the “people” want.
What I’m trying to say here is, don’t let the algorithm beat you down. If you want to post, post. Do it with pride. Don’t worry about the numbers. Get out there and interact with people you follow. If you hit like on their content, tell them why. I bet it will make their day.
/endrant
Thanks
-Phil