Unpopular Opinion: Having a low Follower/Following Ratio is Trivial (And Possibly Narcissistic! )

in Black Sheep Bloggers3 years ago (edited)

Shots fired! Shots fired! (But in no general direction.)

This is not intended for anyone in particular so before you click away in triggered disdain, consider reading on... Or not. It's your life afterall!

In my opinion, one of the most worrisome aspects of social media is the narcissistic tendencies it can bring out in people. Here is a word of encouragement.

Your following ratio has no bearing on the heart of your message

We live in a world which emphasizes appearances and perceptions is often prioritized over truth. Fake until you make it is a symptom of this proclivity.

There are scores of Instagram influences that try to convey the illusion of an affluent materialistic lifestyle they do not, in reality, possess but as long as they can fabricate the appearance of success it will draw in those seeking the same.

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AwakenWithJP droppin' that knowledge!

Check his YouTube. Some hilarious parody of narcissistic "spirituality" among other things.

https://www.youtube.com/user/AwakenWithJP

Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away.

It is a given that all of our days are numbered and thus we are limited in the people for whom we can connect. Notwithstanding the desire to prune one's news fee which can easily be done with an alt account, I don't see why people maintain such narrow following numbers other than to suggest to others "I am important".

This may ruffle some feathers or rattle some egos but that's the intent in part. Sometimes one must bust up the rocks before planting the seed but really my goal is to perhaps stir you to think about social media differently than we have learned from our culture.

It is time we flip the attention centric model on it's head.

Attention is a finite resource on these types and, as scarcity would dictate, people will compete for whatever they can. This leads to myriad problems.

Snark, sharks and a lotta barks

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The zero sum game of relative popularity is a bane to being humble, compassionate and connecting with others. Perhaps, we ought not to play ball but instead build deeper connections and work to elevate each other rather than self. To facilitate that, I do believe I will start an initiative to bolster the spirit of being humble on-chain.

How will I do this?

I am no stranger to using bots. The idea will be to create a follow bot that we may use to follow users that participate in the community that we will create and likewise they may use to follow back fostering a spirit of mutual reciprocity.

It's difficult to grow when you do so alone.

Think of it akin to companion planting which is the practice of growing plants together with complementary characteristics such as pest repelling ability. For example, carrots and onions are one such example.

Carrots should be planted near onions because onions will repel the carrot fly. Onions will also chase away the aphids, so plant them near aphid-prone (but onion-friendly) veggies.

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How does that relate?

  • Complementary generosity of limited attention.
  • Complementary synergism of skills and talents
  • Some with complementary appreciation and application of moderation / negative curation. To repel the figurative weeds and pests. @hive-dr (formerly @steemflagrewards) could play a role in that!

A few other ways you can help the positive vibe!

  • Use GINAbot to set post notifications on others who demonstrated the spirit of mutual reciprocity and focus on manual curation. Learn more

  • Subscribe and curate BlackSheepBloggers and other inclusive, non-cliqueish communities. https://hive.blog/trending/hive-122683

Lastly, I know this was in part a shots fired post (in no general direction as stated) but realistically, if you were one of generally narcissistic tendencies that changed upon this, chances are you may already be entrenched in a paradigm of self-importance and most likely won't change as a leopard doesn't change it' spots.

To be truly revolutionary. You must change from the patterns of old.

Do not let the culture change you. YOU change the culture and how you do this exceeds the words within the body of your blockchain posting operations.

May those with ears to hear. Hear!

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JP is cool but I like this guy even more: ;)

Oh hell yes. Love Barricade Garage. My wife got me on it. The way he does the voices and characters is hilarious! And message on point, too!

Lol saw that one. Tres Leches, my favorite cake.

wow what a wife :0 never let her go

@engrave cough cough cough literally did this with 7 of my accounts lol I watched 1 account after the other be followed. Then I followed back, you know typical blog logic to follow for a follow, but as soon as I did that, @engrave unfriend me 1 account at a time as I went through and followed engrave with each account.

It was not only annoying, but as you said confusing.

There there, pal.::pats back:: Me, too!

I like to call it the ol follow back bait and switch tactic. Used to call out accounts that did that on Twitter.

It's not good feels when that happens. I used to use automated following but manual these days.

BSB is open to all communities, peoples and initiatives, it's an infohub for infohubs...am getting wonderful feedback and even though I am in some "cliques"I'm my own person and nothing but starry eyed on moving forward in a positive direction

I am no stranger to using bots. The idea will be to create a follow bot that we may use to follow users that participate in the community that we will create and likewise they may use to follow back fostering a spirit of mutual reciprocity.

What's the point?

Your attention span can't spread across more than a handful of people anyhow. This is why I only follow the accounts I do. In fact, the number of people I follow should be much, much less.

Purposely inflating your number of follows tells me you aren't consuming content, but simply playing the "follow for follow" game with a different name.

Not really. I show my news feed love even if it is like a roulette wheel w many slots. I'm willing to entertain the ideas of others that are willing to return in kind.I'm the same way on Twitter.

My new "news feed" is essentially Gina with yourself and few others added so, when my VP is good to go, I am ready to read or skim (depending on how close to the mark I am) and then hopefully catch curation. It's been keeping my VP well engaged.

But it is indeed a manual process and consumption is happening to an varying extent. May be less efficient than autocuration but gives me the ability to engage fresh content rather than just playing the robo shuffle.

I understand yours is a hybrid approach. To each their own.

Following people back is "inflating numbers".

Isn't that a bit of a jaded way to look at it?

I mean these are actual people. I don't see them as numbers.

Felt I'd give an example. There was an author, mutual follow, whose post I came across that happened to speak Spanish.

They wrote a poem which I could make out slightly and decided to translate it via Google and respond.

Truth be told, there was a moment for me to find compassion for another person and their plight which would have otherwise not be present.

So, little things like that make my experience worthwhile and a mutual follow goes in the way of telling that person.

"We are peers. I am not above you nor you above me."

For the record, I have not created an actual alt news feed account.

I stumbled across that JP guy recently. His CDC briefings are hilarious.