When is the last time you scrolled through a newsfeed on social media?
What type of posts did you zip by, what types of posts caught your eye? Did you catch yourself asking “what the heck am I looking at?” Or do you just keep scrolling and scrolling..and scrolling..and scrolling until you realize you’re bored – not really gaining any value from what you looked at other than passing the time you had to (or shouldn’t have had to) waste..?
So why do we do it? Why do we spend countless hours a day taking selfies that you spend more hours perfecting than the impression that they leave, or scrolling endlessly through videos of puppies learning to howl or pandas tripping over themselves or people going on “viral” rants about how they “just don’t get it”.. sound familiar?
For something that consumes so much of our time, why are we not looking for more value? Is it our attempt to break away from the hustle and bustle of the busy world moving around us? Is it a way for us to “escape” from our reality? Or is it just a habit that has just become a part of us, regardless of the value it had/has/will have..?
Facebook has announced it’s changing the way they handle content its users post and will see, it wants to make the users’ experience more genuine and revert back to its original intent – to connect people and allow them to share in the experience…
Sounds nice, but is it what we really want? Do we want to be genuine, are we willing to sacrifice the flood of memes, gifs and prank videos for Sally’s engagement photos, Phil’s vlog post about a cheeseburger he ate, Mark’s “I just don’t get it” vague posts, or Tim’s 34 poll questions/answers a day..?
I think Facebook is trying to save itself from the mass exodus of their users – thinking it’s because of the type of content that saturates our newsfeeds, when in reality – I think people are just getting bored and looking for something more exciting.. you know, like taking a picture with a puppy filter or going on a rant about the gal who was so.rude. with the pac-man face-changing filter.. you know, real quality stuff.
So, do we really care about content anymore? Nah, we just want a good laugh or an “aww” moment.
If we want real content, we’ll just visit a blog or news sites.. oh wait.
In the effort of feeding us content social media platforms’ algorithm tells it we will probably like; these platforms have forgotten that if it’s real content we’re after – we’ll find it… we’re just probably not using social media to find it..
tomtheteach 