But not everyone gets it. So they have to try harder. To be more of a spectacle. They will put on a shit show. They will rant and rave and yell and display outrageous behaviour. That should get our attention. Because all I really want is your attention. Paying attention to people makes them feel important. It makes them feel like a celebrity. And nowadays everyone is trying to be a celebrity. They will say and do whatever it takes to steal the spotlight. They are finding new ways to get more attention. And this is what is motivating and inspiring people. Especially young people. They want to be center-stage. They don’t want to cure cancer. That’s just too much work. They don’t want to work towards saving the planet. That’s just too much work. They don’t want world peace. That’s just too much work.
They just want to be the most paid attention to thing.
I should know. I have worked with young people for decades. I have seen the shift in their life goals and aspirations. I recently asked my grade 7/8 class what they wanted to be when they grew up. Over half of them replied that they would like to be social media influencers. And surprisingly, this did not surprise me. It requires very little work. And most of the skills it does require are the skills that young people are learning on their own anyway. They are learning how to use social media. They are learning how to record and edit media. And whatever they are not learning on their own, they are learning in schools.
Schools are requiring them to learn everything on devices now.
So naturally they are wanting to be a big part of what they are learning every day is the world out there. It’s all about the big voices and faces of those who get the big number of followers. The more followers you get, the more popular you are. The more popular you are, the more you feel like a celebrity. And social media loves to breed this kind of motivation, inspiration and ambition. It applauds and encourages it wholeheartedly. In a BIG way.
It all starts with a simple social media account.
It provides an avenue for self-exhibition. You post yourself in some way, whether it be a selfie or a self-fulfilling desire. Perhaps it’s food you like. Or a place you visited. Maybe a pretty picture you took. Or made. And you wait and see who is going to like it. Or love it. Or react to it in some way, that makes you feel validated. Appreciated. Important. And maybe a little bigger inside.
It is an over-inflated take on something that actually gives us very little.
For what it gives us is fleeting. It comes and then it is gone. It does not last or linger. It has no real substance, so it does not sit or stay with us for any period of time. And then when it is gone, we are motivated to find it again with something new to share. We crave the dopamine hit we get from getting some attention. It is a conditioned thing. We weren’t always this way. I mean, yes, we had the potential to be this way. It stems from a basic human need to be heard and seen and understood. We want to feel accepted. Feeling like you have a place in this world is perfectly normal. Even healthy. We all need a sense of belonging.
But now we be longing for more.
We go looking for it. We try to create it. We see how others get it and we try to do the same. It can be quite competitive. So we have to try even harder to get out in front of everyone else. We have to be louder, crazier, more controversial, more dramatic and more outrageous. And the world responds in our favour. All you have to do is look at the most “developed” nation on Earth. They elected a president who was all of these things.
For people just love a shit show.
(But The X-Files is a GOOD show!)
We used to line up to see the circus freaks. But television came along and we could watch them on Jerry Springer from the comfort of our homes. After that, the stage was set. All we needed next was a globally connected media source where we could interact as if we were part of one of those shit shows. And it came.
The internet connected us in ways that we have never been before.
We could now immerse ourselves in each other’s lives. We could be in each other’s living rooms. And bedrooms. And with that, we could get in each other’s business. We could now throw our weight around and weigh in on things we couldn’t before. Suddenly our opinions had weight. They had voice. And everyone had a voice! But nobody knew how to use it. They just had to say things that got people’s attention. It didn’t matter if it was what was really felt or not.
Only that people listened.
It didn’t matter how stupid or insane it sounded. In fact, the stupider and more insane it sounded, the more people listened. It was entertaining. And the outcome and effect of this was a global mindset that became confused and muddled. Suddenly the most preposterous ideas were being proposed and preported. It got people thinking and believing in things they wouldn’t have normally. They didn’t care if it was valid or valuable. They wanted to jump on the bandwagon.
They joined protests that served only the purpose of dramatic effect. They challenged and dismantled agreements about what was the greater good. It broke down the foundations of society. It ate away at reason, as the tendency to mindlessly follow gained a new following.
And following that could lead us into the downfall of us all.
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