Yeah, it’s annoying and if I’m being honest, it makes you look like a douche IMO. The fact that someone would follow you, only to unfollow you in the hopes that you follow them to boost their follower:following ratio makes you look douche, and just further feeds people’s narcissistic tendencies.
If you want to follow me because you like my images, cool, but don’t expect me to follow back. I only follow people that i want, mostly friends/family, some forum members here, and Motorsport photographers.
How so? Forgive me if I seem a bit thick in the social media department but how would any genuine followers know that someone was being followed purely in the hope of a reciprocal "follow" from that follower?
This will likely be a diatribe so switch off here................I'm sick to death of social media being blamed for what ails society
I have no doubt that for some strange reason a not inconsiderable number of people (and I fear for the future here) have some strange desire to accumulate a "digital following" that they, for whatever reason, equate Instagram to garnering imaginary friends or somehow boosting their sad, or should I say, unfulfilled ego? I don't comprehend it other than my belief in an (I am told) outdated opinion that it's all down to (the lack of) correct parenting, my reasoning for which, I guess isn't appropriate to elucidate here.
It's all about "need". Why do folk get mowed down by cars because they are crossing the road with their head buried in a phone? Because they have an unfulfilled or more likely a not learned (communication) need? Social media provides instant gratification, and believe it or not, Psychologists have shown that "instant gratification" is not only the cause of most parental substance abuse and subsequent child abuse but also the cause of those children subsequently exhibiting anti social behaviour and possibly perpetuating abuse.
Why do folk follow in the hope that they get followed back? All well and good to simply dismiss them as "sad b@stards" but aren't they your mates, your work colleagues, your sons and daughters, even your parents, and more confusingly and alarmingly, "professionals" who advise and direct you such as paediatricians, psychologists, lawyers et al..............if they're hooked, what hope for your kids?
Social media isn't the problem. It's here to stay. It's how it's used that is the problem.
To simply dismiss Instagram or any other mass (digital) media as for the "brain dead masses" and to consider their users as nothing but "narcissists" is short sighted and ignoring the real problem. Ask yourself (as a parent) do your kids use it and if they do, are they narcissists, and if so, why?.......................all those millions of users can't actually be fruit cakes, can they? Or have they just been indoctrinated to accept a capitalist product................no different really to 60's kids accepting the mini skirt or 80's girls accepting ridiculous perms and leg warmers................other than the fact that digital/media products seem to be more "hypnotic"
The family unit has been divided by capitalism. A wholesome (50's) family equates to one TV, one phone, one kitchen (and it's appliances)...........so it was in England during the industrial revolution. Children at age 16 were evicted from tied cottages, driven to work in the mines and therefore tied to their own mine cottage.............two consuming families as opposed to one. How many tv's in a family home nowadays? How many phones? how many laptops/computers? Promote independence (aka what would have been known as "sexual promiscuity") and you've actually got a kid leaving to set up home with a partner before they are financially sound enough to do so, and what follows is their subsequent dependence on (capitalist) credit
Social media is not the problem. The problem is what it is being used for by capitalism?
Please excuse a (perhaps) off thread reply but as an old fart of 70 yrs of age, I really am surprised by the lack of understanding/consideration/social knowledge of those much younger and supposedly more educated than myself (I left school at 15). TBH, I sometimes think, well I am told, That I am "more in touch" with my kids, and foster kids, than their teachers ever were
