Social media has many facets, where it has been a boon to big and small businesses, more accessibility it also has turned every other person famous. Awards are being given to content creators and movie roles are being offered to social media personalities. Content creation is no longer limited to creating content for websites but dishing out material, reel after reel for followers.
We dance for the likes, act for subscriptions, and sing for the followers. Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, and so many more have become our daily dose of entertainment. We consume so much content from the various mediums that sometimes lines between real and reel starts blurring. Have we fallen prey to exponential exaggerations?
We all have fallen prey to the many facets of social media and it is not limited to a particular age or even a country. Social media exhibitionist has a few tendencies that need a bit of consideration.
1. Narcissism
Narcissistic people tend to be self-obsessed. Taking multiple selfies. Making sure that their good side is only captured when in a group. Going through hours to look perfect! Narcissistic people now have a way to be obsessed with their own image. When their content is appreciated by ardent followers who may not even believe that they are supporting a person who does not care about anything else but themselves.
2. Shopaholic
Many social media personalities have OOTD and GRWM channels. They are always flaunting effortless styles and oodles of charm through all ‘the stuff’ that they own. They promote clothing and make up brands and much more. The followers, in the name of following their role models blindly try to copy them. Sometimes not even realizing what a waste of their resources it is to hop on to every trend. They spend much more than they can afford and sometimes land in a bit of trouble.
3. Shallow
Influencers work hard to influence their followers. They create content from their daily life and most of the time it is a shallow depiction of facts with just one angle. In a very short span they build an image, a story that captures and most of the time is not multi-dimensional. It promotes a shallow personality who likes to take a lot of pictures not for the sake of creating memories but for the simple reason to create content for social media.
4. Addiction
We all wake up with the phone on our hand and mindlessly scrolling. Every free moment we get it is to explore the various social media sites. Going without it for one hour makes us irritable and anxious. Young adults browse and scroll a lot and it has created an addiction where their brain cells and physical health suffers immensely.
Artists put on makeup and spin a fairy tale story with a lot of pomp and show. Posing in a way that people would go ga-ga over them. At one point the actors were entertainers. But now with social media, we have put our own life on exhibition. Chronicling everything every day in order to get some attention and love from unknown people. And then get into a competition to be the best. A swamp-like place has been created where any one (including myself) not only consumes the content but lives everyday thinking of how to create content to garner more traffic.
Social media marketing for brands or individuals has become such a huge business that judging, criticism, parading and ridiculing has become a trend. Social media marketing aims at people like us as a target audience. We have raised these content writers to a pedestal where one day we all will realize that social media exhibitionism is just that – exhibition. To like and admire from a distance. But never to indulge.
There is no denying that social media has its perks but it should come with a statutory warning.
A mother of two, Preeti Bhandari is a colloquial writer. She believes in simple living which reflects in her writings. As the Editor of Narisakti, she intends to use her vast experience to propel this platform to a cult status among entrepreneurial networks. When not writing she is quilling, both with paper and thoughts.