Recently I have been talked into signing up for LinkedIn by a friend. I found myself faced with a wall of blatant self-promotion.
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And I can't help but wonder...
Who even reads these?
It feels very much like someone read a marketing 101 blog.
"Hey lists are a thing people like, just find 10 things that might be useful and post it on social media!"
And then we're all flooded by posts that add nothing to the conversation, with no explanation of what the listed things do differently, what their individual advantages are, what they cost, their licensing, and so on.
I really don't see the purpose of posting these short lists of things that exist outside of hunting for clicks.
It doesn't even help you build authority either. I've seen countless people post these under their own name... only to find the exact same list of '10 tools for taking notes' in 5 seconds on google.
Guess which came first?
Of course, the problem isn't with the people doing this. It's only natural to seek popularity using whatever tools are available, and it's quite apparent that a lot of people do in fact enjoy these lists - at least gauging by the number of people liking these threads.
The real issue is with the systems that social media use. These are systems that rate things by how many interactions they have. With the option to simply 'click' and give a post with no real value, no real purpose, a small boost in its reach, this becomes dangerous.
Well thought out and insightful messages get drowned out in the noise.
The Feed™ becomes a hell-scape of low-effort "content", rather than a place of discovery and wonder. A serious discussion cannot take place when the very platforms it _should_ take place on are against it.
There is also the rampant self-interest that social media make so apparent. If your livelihood depends on being popular, then naturally you'll want to be doing what attracts the most engagement, because that is exactly what these platforms promote. And if it's low effort, all the better!
