While I like transparency, I don't like being pulled into the drama of other people's lives who have failed to learn how to communicate with discretion. I blame people's reliance on social media and becoming products of the gamification process, seeking for attention and sympathy, rather than solution to whatever is actually affecting them.
I am glad I don't spend any time on the mainstream social platforms where people think airing their own dirty laundry for likes thinks that it elevates them in the eyes of their family and peers. I don't get how broadcasting psychological instability and an inability to cope with what is general ordinary life experience is how people want to position themselves in a society of any kind. It isn't about "being open" at all, it is about picking the lowest hanging fruit for attention and one that is not an investment, but will face a diminishing return on its effectivity.
Personally, I don't mind having people speak in private with me about their various issues, but when they start to broadcast what should be discussed privately in the hope to garner support, when they attempt to bring people into the discussion who have no place to be there, when they start to feed on the drama they can create rather than look for solutions, I will very quickly extricate myself from their lives.
If people are more interested in the attention than the solution, I don't have a lot of time to spend on them. It doesn't really matter what kind of issue it is, whether it be family problems of some kind or health issues. Complaining publicly about these things, but doing nothing toward improving conditions is not where I want to place my attention, time or effort.
What I find is that the people who tend to do this are also the ones who will double-down on their own stupidity, as the public image of themselves and perhaps their own self-worth is tied to the opinions of the group. This means that backtracking is made difficult as the "support" has been "won" on a particular position and changing that position will mean that those who supported are made to feel wrong in their decision and will start to criticize, just to stop themselves from looking foolish.
In some ways, it is like the person who breaks up with a partner and then encourages friends to bad mouth them and tell what they "really think" - only for the couple to get back together a few weeks later and have all of those opinions made known to the partner. Social media is a slew of slander and while there is so much across so many domains that people can't keep track of who said what, when it is personal, it is easy to recall.
Do you remember all of the good things people have said about you, or do you remember when someone has called you fat, or ugly, stupid or made that racist or sexist comment that bit to your own bone? This is the thing with social media, people say so much stuff into the void to strangers that eventually, they are going to trigger a negative reaction from everyone who consumes it - even if it wasn't meant specifically for them, even if it wasn't intended to be negative at all.
Communication requires the transmission and the receiving of information and as we are human, it doesn't work like the zeroes and ones of the digital realm - the results of transmission aren't binary, they are going to be passed through a spectrum that is generated at the individual level through things like past experience, understanding and current emotional state - to be translated and understood in the current moment, which will trigger the reaction.
Communication always triggers some kind of reaction, as it is causes a movement of the mind. It could be the liking of or voting on a post, it could be a look of disdain, it could be a clap of support or a scream in anger, but there is always something, including a turning away, a removal of support - silence.
I think that the people who chase attention through drama will often be met with a turning down of the volume until silence, where people tire of their approach and one by one, switch off and fly away to find something more interesting, something more important.
They can transmit all they want, ramp up their methods and the stakes, but eventually, even the most effective drama seekers will no longer be able to generate a response in their audience, no longer be able to get an emotional rise, as people will just no longer care.
They will be left alone.
The lines of communication will reduce until they themselves remain quiet and they will be relegated to a life of obscurity.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
