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Social Media Craziness - The Downfall of Authenticity in a Competitive World
In my opinion, social media has completely gotten out of control these past few years.
28/09/2024
Ruth Silbermayr
Author
Social media, I believe, has gone completely crazy. In my niche, it is expected that you engage with social media, putting yourself out there through videos and other content, while ignoring the red flags that come with its use.
While I am not against social media use per se, I believe some of the newer platforms have created a level of madness we’ve never seen before.
I’m not a fan of people posting millions of videos on Instagram. Why? Because social media has gotten out of control. Many video platforms make it difficult for beginners who don’t want to put out a lot of content, and they’ve contributed, through their rules and algorithms, to a general climate of competition, valuing quantity over quality. Bloggers who have been using the written word have been forced onto those social media platforms that are using video. If you don’t, it can be hard to get clicks and be found on Google.
Many bloggers have completely stopped blogging because it has become futile. In many cases, video has replaced the written word, and for introverts or highly sensitive people (HSPs) like me, putting ourselves out there in videos is not something we want to do.
I’ve also experienced social media madness personally, where people entered into competition with me, even though I wasn’t competing with them. In my opinion, people who feel the need to compete with others usually don’t have high self-esteem. They may be narcissists, extroverts, or Type 3s, but they aren’t typically the healthiest individuals. I find that men who feel the need to compete with women are often more effeminate than masculine. While I believe competition is rarely healthy, it seems even more unhealthy when it comes from the opposite sex.
In my case, the stalker who has sabotaged my career, life, and relationships is constantly in competition with me. It only takes one person to create a competitive environment, and even though I hate competition more than anything else, this person has kept me in a constant state of feeling like I have to improve—because of his projection that I am inherently flawed and never good enough—and copy what others are doing on social media.
He’s placed immense pressure on me and created a very stressful environment. This is someone for whom enough is never enough. He has everything he needs, yet still feels the need to steal from others and make their lives miserable. Gratitude is a concept he doesn’t understand, and Impatiens is the Bach Flower Remedy suited for someone who constantly pressures and stresses others to work faster, talk faster, walk faster—always demanding more and more.
“Enough” is a word I often use, but for him, no boundary ever exists. Nature is illegitimately swapped out for fakeness, superficiality, and technocracy at the hands of this severe abuser.
In his case, technocracy also extends to smartphones and computers, which he sees as superior “robots” we form relationships with instead of real people. In his mind, social media or my blog would allow me to receive what I supposedly lack: external validation through clicks on my posts or videos that prove my worth.
In his eyes, my worth only comes from external factors, and is not something I carry within. If I only got 300 views yesterday, he’ll put me down, shame me for not being good enough, and create a hostile environment where he pressures me to post another blog or publish another video to get more views. When I do get these views, he’ll be pleased because it reflects that I am “popular and famous”—and, by extension, he is too, just by being in my proximity, even though no one invited him in.
This is the extremely schizophrenic, mentally ill mind of a very sick narcissist whose sole purpose is to stalk, control, and compete with me, projecting external values he believes I need to adopt to make my life more livable and fulfilling.
However, true fulfillment doesn’t come from external clicks or validation. It comes from living a purposeful life with meaning that extends far beyond the fake world of social media craziness and competition—something his limited mind will never grasp.
How do you feel about the way social media has developed?