We Talk Friday
(WTF)
This is a semi-regular series that I will run on Fridays to hold discussions on a current topic from the week gone. The aim is to keep them light and conversational, though some might be heavier - regardless of the content topic itself though, just have some fun engaging and discussing with whoever happens to put in the effort in the comments section below.
We went and had dinner with friends tonight and spoke about many things, with a large section around social media usage. Out of the four of us, three spend a fair amount of time scrolling the various social feeds, with me being the exception. I do none of that. However, we were talking about inspiration and activation, as while so many claim that they get inspiration out of the feeds, I was curious as to what that got translated into. What is inspiration, if it doesn't get transferred into action of some kind?
So since it is late and I am going to go to bed very soon, for this WTF I was wondering what people get out of social media these days.
Back when I was actively using mainstream social media, I was actively posting, as were my friends, so the feeds I saw were filled with people I knew, even if some of them were more casual acquaintances or I hadn't seen for years. But, according to those I talked with tonight, they couldn't even remember the last time they created anything themselves, which means they are just consumers. Not only that, they barely see anything from their friends, because not only do their friends not post much, but the algorithms will give them content from strangers and companies instead.
So the question again, what do people get out of it?
Some people swear that it gives them a lot of information, but I am of the mind that unless information is turned into action, it is just trivia. And knowing trivia doesn't make a person intelligent, it just gives them lots of random points of disconnected irrelevance to regurgitate. It might make them sound smart, but they are far less "smart" than AI or Google, which everyone has access to. Having a memory for irrelevant details is useless in this day and age. There is no point in remembering details that don't need to be remembered, but there is a lot of value in being able to apply information wisely.
The conversations were far-ranging and I will probably write more about them later, but keeping WTF light (as it was supposed to be, but I often fail at), I wouldn't mint gauging the temperature from the audience about what exactly is the personal outcome or value of scrolling endless feeds of content.
After a scrolling session, what did you get?
(You can also theorise)
Taraz
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