In my post The Dark Side of Web 2.0, I talked about how social media companies are actively working to keep us plugged in to their products for as long as possible. I focused on how the odds are not in our favor, but does that mean we don’t have any responsibility for our actions online? Are we at least partly to blame for allowing our emotions to be manipulated and elements of our human nature exploited in this online environment?
It’s no secret that we like getting likes or rather the feeling that we get when we receive them. Dopamine, a chemical produced in the brain, was believed to be responsible for the sensation of pleasure; however, scientist now believe that dopamine instead regulates desire and motivation for attaining pleasure. In other words, each like keeps us wanting more.
The results of a New Statesmen survey reveal that happiness online is fleeting. 518 social media users were surveyed and one finding showed that:
“After getting lots of Likes, 12.5 per cent of people will feel happy for around an hour, 10.2 per cent will feel it for the entire day, and for 3.1 per cent of people, it will last a week.”On Saturday as I was preparing to wrap up my thoughts for the week I looked back at my posts and saw that not a single comment had been left. More surprising was the fact that I noticed myself becoming frustrated with this lack of engagement. I pondered why no one had commented and then I pondered why did I care? This blog is more or less a 6-week experiment into the realm of online content creation. I am not selling anything and my livelihood is not dependent on a steady stream of traffic to my site, so why was I bothered by the fact that I had no comments? Dopamine is strong stuff.
Fortunately, I was able to recognize what was happening and I did end up getting a couple comments; thank you to those two readers (you know who you are!) But what about someone who is not looking at social media as an experiment but instead as an increasingly important part of their daily life? How do they react?
According to a recent study by Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield, 58 percent of respondents indicated that posting that perfect picture has prevented them from enjoying life experiences—and has sometimes even caused them to behave in bizarre or immoral ways. More and more you hear about these challenges being issued on social media, daring others to engage in risky behaviors. Remember the Tide pod challenge not too long ago?
More insight from the survey can be seen in this infographic.
And at the very extreme end of the spectrum I came across this news video about three social media stars, members of the Canadian group High on Life, who tragically fell to their death at Shannon Falls in British Columbia last week. In the clip, a social media expert confirms Grenny and Maxfield’s findings stating that the bigger the risk the bigger the payoff in earning likes. The Internet is an amazing place and has opened up the world for anyone to connect to. But in doing so it has also created some danger in how we present ourselves in that space and for what purposes. So I encourage you to take a moment and ask yourself, how far are you willing to go to get a like?
References:
VitalSmarts. (2015, March 17). Society’s New Addiction: Getting a “Like” over Having a Life [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.vitalsmarts.com/crucialskills/2015/03/societys-new-addiction-getting-a-like-over-having-a-life/
Weiss, G. (2015, March 13). How Wanting “Likes” on Social Media Is Killing Our Capacity for Actual Joy (Infographic) [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/243924
