Social media isn’t always social. It’s often artificial and narcissistic...
by Stephan Joubert
“How many followers do you have?” someone asks me out of the blue. “Nah, actually none! However, I do know that I am Jesus’ follower,” I answer. “You’re understanding me wrong. How many followers do you have on Twitter?” “Oh I see. Well, I have a few, but they aren’t really mine. I don’t own or control them...” I explain. “Well, my followers have doubled recently,” he carries on uninvited. “I discovered this app on the internet that attracts followers like flies.” “And the point is?” I ask.
One of the “shocks” around the new digital world that I regularly have to process is that social media isn’t always as social as we think. In fact, it’s often artificial and manipulated. This was clear once again when I had coffee with someone somewhere, and he suddenly remarked that one of his Facebook friends just walked past us. “Why don’t you greet each other?” I asked... since I noticed that they saw each other. “No, we’re only Facebook friends,” he remarked dryly.
For many, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and whatnot, have become artificial media to chase numbers and... who knows... to make them feel better about themselves. Talking about Facebook, research in 2012 shows that Facebook users take about 21% of the time they spend on this platform to maintain and update their own profile. The British Daily Mail wrote on 9 September 2010 in an article: “Facebook users are insecure, narcissistic and have low self-esteem,” in reference to a study by Soraya Mehdizadeh from York University in Canada that implies that the use of Facebook is the equivalent to staring at yourself in the mirror. Narcissists, who are secretly in love with themselves, regularly monitor their appearance on Facebook and, according to Mehdizadeh, flourish on shallow relationships while they sidestep genuine warmth and empathy.
Thank God everyone doesn’t use social media merely for self-promotion. For many, it’s indeed a platform of interaction. It’s with such people that valuable “tribes” often emerge, i.e. groups who can grow and share life around the same values and interests. Their interactions are creative and their interest in each other authentic. They talk and live together in the digital sphere, and this flows over into actions in real life. They do not hide behind artificial digital persona’s, but they integrate the different realities in which they live.