Unpopular opinion: Social Media Will Never Be Real Life

[PatCake]

The internet is not, and will never be a real place. Most of what we see or talk about is extremely exaggerated and it is only news because of it's rarity, not the norm. Therefore, while very entertaining and sometimes very disturbing, the internet is NOT real life

The true winners are those who created and benefit from the platforms and the content creators who saw it for what it truly is: A marketing, and advertisement cash grab. Where the only currency is the number of 'clicks' and you doing everything to get those clicks.

The losers are the people who angage in the fukkery while taking it seriously. Those that get pissed off by some online avatar not knowing who the real person is. Whether it's a 12 year old kid, a bot, some sadist incel, an unstable weirdo, some degenerate or an actual well adjusted and reasonable person. And those that think the internet personality is the same as the real life personality.

I think even the media know. They report an extreme example of something and talk about it like it's a norm. Some Podcaster or YouTuber comes up with some theory, goes viral and people believe that it applies in general to everything, not just a once off. Which is why words like "best ever", "greatest", "goat", "of all time", "most terrible person because" have become overused. Nah these people know exactly what they're doing, but do we?

 

[PatCake]

I started noticing this around 2016. What some people say and post on the internet and social media was inconsistent with real their real life. I'm talking about someone you know from childhood being a total different personality online. You run into them on the street and their back to the quiet and reserved person they always were. So how many people just "say stupid things or opposite things" just because it's the internet?

2016 helped define to me what the internet is all about. First of all I was working with some American and English people on a commissioning project. That was the year when Brexit occurred and also the year Trump won. The people I was working with had very liberal opinions on their Facebook pages. Most of em seemed like your left wing type of white people. There was guy in particular who was tweeting some anti-Trump stuff weekly when I started following him.

Then around July 2016, Brexit occurred. We were at this get together celebrating the success of first part of our project and man!, I was shocked. You wouldn't believe the juxtaposition of what people say online and what they do or believe in real life. This lady in particular was so happy that Britain left the EU. She was drunk talking about how Albanians and Indians and Pakistanis have been coming and going in Britain as they please. How they were tired of 'fukkin funding everyones country' and now putting Britain first. The same woman who's work computer had like 5 pages of TheGuardian
website open everyweek. She comments there and what she says was the opposite of what she did. She voted for Brexit!
That's when the other American guy also talked about how he likes Trump and thinks that there was a lot of good he will if given a chance. He sure sounded like he'd vote for him too come the election. By the time the election came, I wasn't working on the project anymore but Trump won! How many people among those millions who voted pretend they hate Trump online but vote for him?

These are just examples of course but damn, as the years went on I've come to see social media as nothing but a joke.
If you don't make money in this thing you shouldn't take it as serious. You save yourself a lot anger if you see this shyt for what it is. Just harmless entertainment. Brain food to click on when sitting on the toilet or on a train to work.

 

[Shadow King]

Lol it already is...

 

[F*ckthemkids]

 

[Remote]

To some degree, it is a real place.

If Oscar Wilde was right in saying

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask and he will tell you the truth

...then what mask could be better than the relative anonymity the internet/social media gives people?

 

[Ahadi]

 

[WaveCapsByOscorp™]

it's not real because you can disengage from it. it only has value because of what's invested in it.

in real life, you can't "disengage" from it; your life is your life. one of one.

when you wake and regain consciousness, you're forced to face yourself. every single time.

it's really because of things like the internet and other addictive things people are able to create illusions that more or less express desires over reality.

you can stop using the internet but you can't stop life. or, if you did, that'd be the end of your experience, never to be replicated again.

 

[MajesticLion]

It's every bit as real as anything else. It's your responsibilities that don't change: the lies you choose to let shape your life, the truths you choose to ignore because they make you feel uncomfortable...online or wherever, that accountability never changes.

 

[Fillerguy]

Yet people sp desperately want it to be. Ever notice how users get offended when you say the internet isn't a real place or "touch grass"?

We're going to see a society where a small sub section of individuals live almost entirely on the internet, in this century. The internet will be real for some people soon.

 

[Burned Verses]

There has been plenty of violence, policies, and campaigns influenced by social media.

This wishful thinking has to stop.

 

[skyrunner1]

The internet is not, and will never be a real place. Most of what we see or talk about is extremely exaggerated and it is only news because of it's rarity, not the norm. Therefore, while very entertaining and sometimes very disturbing, the internet is NOT real life

The true winners are those who created and benefit from the platforms and the content creators who saw it for what it truly is: A marketing, and advertisement cash grab. Where the only currency is the number of 'clicks' and you doing everything to get those clicks.

The losers are the people who angage in the fukkery while taking it seriously. Those that get pissed off by some online avatar not knowing who the real person is. Whether it's a 12 year old kid, a bot, some sadist incel, an unstable weirdo, some degenerate or an actual well adjusted and reasonable person. And those that think the internet personality is the same as the real life personality.

I think even the media know. They report an extreme example of something and talk about it like it's a norm. Some Podcaster or YouTuber comes up with some theory, goes viral and people believe that it applies in general to everything, not just a once off. Which is why words like "best ever", "greatest", "goat", "of all time", "most terrible person because" have become overused. Nah these people know exactly what they're doing, but do we?

Pretty sure that was around time IG changed from chronological order timeline to algorithm, everything is working as planned.

 

[RamsayBolton]

It bleeds into the real world more and more every day, unfortunately

 

[AAKing23]

Man this shyt is so not real at all

People will say anything it takes to get views, clicks and attention

The amount of times I see Twitter fact check alot of these viral posts or see people get exposed on their own posts for capping is immeasurable at this point. They love to get on the internet and just lie. I don't believe anything until I see it in real life or at least is posted by a credible media source

 

[Professor Emeritus]

I don't think some of the responses understand what the OP is saying.


Social media will never be an accurate representation of reality, nor will it be trustworthy that any particular thing done/said on social media will align with real life. That is obviously true, and it's hard to see away around it.

He's not saying that social media doesn't impact real life. It DOES impact life, but from a particular warped perspective, and that's the problem.

 

[UpNext]

I agree with OP. I remember when this used to be a thing

and folks would get clowned for taking this online shyt too seriously. I guess the lames got ahold of the internet through social media and now here we are.