A personal word on social media and content creation
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Though hypocritically I sometimes fall into the same trap when I am not interested in a discussed topic at hand, I feel like a lot of "sharings" and "discussions" today only feature the restatement of common platitudes and the prevailing "acceptable opinions". This may be a problem because most difficult questions don't have simple answers, but much of new media today so seeks categorical conclusions that we often forget that an exchange of ideas and perspectives is in itself a worthy outcome of conversation.
As with most modern technologies, I remain conflicted at the effects of social media on my life.
I think social media makes it easier to maintain "passive friendships" and acquaintanceships by providing reasons for engagement; when you put out a Post or a Story, you are essentially creating Content to which your Viewers can respond. Comments and Replies facilitate "out of the blue" short conversations between you and people whom you would prefer to keep in your life, but may not want to talk to every day.
But I can't help wondering if this effort to keep us connected might inadvertently be driving us apart. Though videoconferencing allows people who are not in the same physical space to connect in an almost-instantaneous manner, perhaps if videoconferencing did not exist, that we may put in more effort to meet up in-person.
Or perhaps we may not meet up at all if we're not that close anyway, and videoconferencing was never a substitute to our interactions, but instead serves as a lower "barrier" to interacting with people whom we would not rather in person. This exemplifies that perhaps social media does not modify our behaviour, as much as it amplifies negative characteristics with greater ease and efficiency than any other platform.
The thing about social media is that it gives us an audience, which then makes us all performers in some capacity. It is not that everything online is categorically dishonest, but that the truth of the current moment is how you choose to perform honesty. Our online persona is but another facade that we maintain in addition to the many faces that we already present to different groups of people in our lives.
For the longest time, I have never maintained a diary.
"Go read your diary - it's a performance too; you're performing to yourself. Read your diary and you'll go like 'why am I trying to sound deep to myself?'"
- Bo Burnham, on Off Camera
Just like replaying an audio clip of your own voice, I guess the idea of performing to myself does not appeal to me because I find my raw, unprocessed thoughts and emotions "very cringe", and refuse to acknowledge that I am not as put together as I hope to portray myself as; If it's not presentable enough for other people, it's not presentable enough to me to have it on paper record. So today I made you some content instead of scribbling in my non-existent journal.
Perhaps therein lies the intrinsic struggle of being "honest" online, which is that it is difficult to border remaining presentable without becoming disingenuous.
It is difficult to stand out in an increasingly saturated media landscape helmed by rapidly dwindling attention spans, much unless you're pretty or smart or entertaining. When I had first started sharing my reflections online, I was beset with the constant fear of being irrelevant. The limitations lie not in the bottleneck of ideas and content, but in the medium itself; the same ideas presented in 30-second cinematographic clips would much more be captivating to more people than any 1000-word essay.
I think the tragedy of the new media is that there is an expectation for constant engagement with our audience, and for content creators, this may translate to a pressure to continually develop material to remain relevant.
But just as how profit-maximising companies may have other objectives as increasing market share at the expense of immediate-term profit, so perhaps the key differentiator lies in recognising one's priorities and purpose for producing content.
I will realise and admit that my goal is not so much growth of exposure of my work, but personal growth and wanting to at the same time produce something that I can show people and say "hey I wrote this", be it as a show of "how did you spend your free time" or a roundabout way of demonstrating some basic maturity of critical thinking or capacity for written expression. I also believe that many of my experiences and realisations may not be unique to me, and hope that my sharing of personal insights may benefit someone. I conclude that I would much rather spend more time developing my thoughts and producing pieces that I can be happy with and proud of, than to stress about sustaining an IV drip of mediocre content.
How does one remain genuine in a hostile and toxic environment that seeks to exploit our shortcomings and take advantage of our weaknesses?
Vulnerability refers to the state of being "exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally". It thus follows that mutual vulnerability is important in interpersonal relationships because it is a show of shared trust to open oneself to the possibility of hurt in order to connect with the other person at an emotional level.
But to be vulnerable online is not only opening oneself to the threat of immediate attacks, but that from the future. By being vulnerable on the Internet, we effectively expose ourselves to the long tail end of disreputation from the incongruence of your "real self" with the values of the present.
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