#ingenuine

I think it's okay to want attention and draw attention to yourself using these platforms, but social media has certainly become a competition for everyone else's attention. People scroll double-tap scroll double-tap scroll double-tap scroll and tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap through stories mindlessly to look for..... I'm not exactly sure what, and they don't read anything, bypassing anything that might be an invitation to engage with another person, perhaps otherwise known as an opportunity.

Of course, for the sake of keeping friends, or boosting friends' gorgeous beach selfies and hawt lewks and temporary self-esteem (or perhaps ego), ppl will comment "😍😍😍," "STUNNING," "beaut," "gorgeous," and other variations and blends of adoration, not writing too much or anything too weird because you need to answer perfectly for the aforementioned friend and anyone else who views your comment (that isn't made for them but can and will be assessed by them). And then they'll proceed down their feed, scroll double-tap scroll double-tap scroll double-tap, waiting for their friend(s) to punctuate their comment with a Like, or perhaps a reply "no that's u," or "❤️," or "thanks beaut," or any variations of return praise that isn't meant to start conversations and should be properly return-punctuated with a Like.

Posting anything other than a Pretty Face that's easy to react to will result in a post going unnoticed or ultimately ignored. Posting too much of anything that isn't Pretty Face warrants a separate account labeled for "spam," where one can actually post about things that they want to talk about with other people because not enough people are following the account to care! (wait, does... does that make sense? making a separate account to talk to people, followed by far fewer people to talk to? sounds close enough to the truth, but the logic still evades me... especially because the plight that befell the first account traveled to the Spam Account, and suddenly posting too much Spam on your Spam Account causes Intense Anxiety)

Captions are hardly even glanced at, so why is everyone thinking so hard about about the specific emojis and aesthetic words they'll use when few people to no one is going to care (or even notice) that you just ended up writing "I'm bad at captions" before they double-tap and scroll double-tap scroll double-tap scroll double-tap away without noticing who posted the Pretty Face they double-tapped 4 posts ago.

Good luck garnering attention on the Story feature. While roughly a third of one's followers Like a post on their feed, a quarter or even fewer followers will interact with their Story in one of the following ways: 1) comment 2) react with the Handy Dandy Preset Reactions so they don't have to bother opening up the emoji keyboard 3) engage with the poll/"ask me anything"/multiple choice question, etc feature potentially presented on the Story 4) tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap right through the Story whose purple/green lil bubble they just want gone (this is the most likely option for those who don't post Pretty Face, especially if what was posted were a ton of words not meant for the platform that spanned several stories). Promoting art, social justice issues, nature pics, might might Might get a 4-second look before tap. tap. tap. tap tap tap tap tap tap proceeds.

It's mindless. It doesn't have to be. It isn't always. But I can see the drool dripping from the tap tap tappers and the scroll double-tap scroll double-tap scrollers. There's no way anything I have to think/say is competing--winning-- against Pretty Face and their armada of Stunned-For-Long-Enough-To-Type-About-It followers.

Ugh. This isn't even half of it. And don't even get me started about Twitter.