Nice piece of writing about the like culture that has developed the last couple of years. It has a powerful message!
This digital identity creates a comparison culture. What do I have I compared to others? That question leads to both admiration and jealousy: the other has something I do not have. The struggle for ownership and appreciation is the result. In fact, you are therefore no longer free: because of the dependence on the other person's appreciation for what you have, you no longer have a complete handle on your own happiness.
There is a danger lurking: we are never satisfied. We have become slaves to the attention we generate through the machine. And we also depending on those machines: we submit ourselves to the community. And although the internet was once presented to us as the means to truly free ourselves, with the world at our fingertips, we are no longer free.
Such a good response, thank you! I loved the last line. I was inspired to write this after frantically going back to check my facebook, trying to get that confidence boost which is so fleeting and unsatisfying. I decided I needed a break from it all, to leave facebook alone for a while. The internet is such a useful tool, such an incredible tool for spreading information, yet it is such a disempowering tool when misused. Facebook and other social media outlets know we want acknowledgment, we want reasurance from others that we are great. Yet when we look at social media for love and connection we get something so bland and disheartening instead- a like on a photos, more followers, someone sending us 'virtual hugs'... we can't touch that, we can't feel it and it doesn't really give us any real connection... just leaves us disconnected and craving more... We need to recognise how addictive and negative these technologies are. We need to look for a connection with people, with real interaction, and most importantly of all with ourselves... and we will never get that on social media!