Won’t You Please ‘Like’ Me? I’m feeling a Little Neglected.
Lately I have begun to ponder the merits of Facebook, LinkedIn, Pintrest, About me, Instagram, Twitter and all the other sites out there who carry that little button whereby I invite people I don’t know and will probably never meet to, “like me.”
However, as a blogger and having tasted being ‘liked’ I check the various sites to which I contribute regularly, well let’s be honest here, about every ten minutes or so. It’s a little like having tasted crack cocaine, liked it and then continually coming back for more.
I find the concept of 'liking' a little bizarre where now advertisements in print and on TV carry the silly statement, "like us on Facebook" as if this is the road to finding the Holy Grail or a dedicated following who will slavishly buy the company’s products. I have discovered people who often slip into depression when they log onto their individual sites to find that no one has ‘liked’ their comment or the banal picture of their pet sleeping in a bucket.
For some this is tantamount to total rejection by an on -line society where it seems that not even their invisible friends whom they have never met, like them very much, or if at all. However, having said that, the ‘likes’ one receives seems to bolster self - esteem as if that crowd in cyber-space have adopted you for posting about that wonderful breakfast you had this morning (complete with slightly out of focus photograph) This is stuff that if Facebook were not around one would never read.
The demise and terrible fate of the Malaysian Airlines passenger jet last a couple of ears ago seemed to fuel the Facebook frenzy of ill - constructed posts. It seemed bizarre to see people posting sympathy notes to the two hundred and thirty nine people who perished in this disaster receiving hundreds of ‘likes.”
Oh, Mum died this morning; I’ll just post that on Facebook. A little while later the bereaved relative happily exclaims that her post on Mama’s death received an incredible sixty-seven likes!
The explosive power of ‘liking’ has spread to other sites that have sprung up in the past few years. Linked In ,the site that doesn’t ask you to befriend people you don’t know but rather asks you to ‘connect’ with people you don’t know. After you have built up your ‘stable’ of contacts one is suddenly asked to ‘congratulate’ John Smith from Boise, Idaho who was recently promoted to chief sewer supervisor.
This site, which has a ‘business slant,’ has stumbled upon the like button.
Post an insightful article or quotation stolen or shamelessly plagiarized from what the writer hopes is an obscure journal has a like button. Now we can applaud the thief for his diligence in informing me about an endangered frog in Tierra del Fuego
About me (What could be a more narcissistic name for a site than this little beauty) has dispensed with the like button and instead has one called, “ compliment me.”
Self - indulgent activities run to posting a snap of a sunset and then sitting back and waiting for compliments to flood your way. The term ‘fishing for compliments’ has never been more poignant.
Pintrest is something quite frankly I don’t understand and will not bore any potential readers with my ignorance. However, I suspect they have a button that says ‘prick me ‘ meaning your photo of your child’s Christmas concert has struck a chord with someone in Iceland.
Now we come to Twitter and the wonderfully named tweets: forty-five or so characters to excite the myriad of ‘followers’ you may have. ( Mr Trump adores this site) I shouldn’t be arrogant as I actually have a Twitter account and see regular tweets to say that so and so is now following you on Twitter.
My first reaction is to think, why?
Twitter seems to be a tool whereby football players or B listed Hollywood types get themselves into trouble by tweeting banal messages that on the whole are offensive. They have a bit of a rant and within an instant they are headline news for all the wrong reasons with their PR and publicist’s scrambling to try and avoid media fallout. Tweeting sometimes is akin to drinking and dialing, in other words, best avoided.
And so, after this rather nebulous rant I will sign off and post this article to my website. The clever program that runs the site will then re- post this to Twitter, Facebook, Tumblir, Stumble Upon and a myriad of other outlets.
So if you do have a minute, please press the like button as lately I’m feeling a little neglected!
