Query:
And this is in all sincerity. I left the bird site in 2018, and never used it much before that.
What is the value of a “follow”? Why is the # of followers so important?
I understand if you’re doing marketing, or selling stuff. But why for normal people?
It doesn’t make sense to me.
When I walk into a bookstore, I pay zero attention to the best seller shelf. I ignore the loud flashy covers. Yes I enjoy discovery. But I do that by reading, or asking staff.
@GlytchMeister
Like all the pins and ribbons on the chest of a North Korean General.
As strange and weird as it may be, the beginning of this video captures the concept pretty well. Right up until the purple puppet says “Fuck your head and the neck it rode in on!”
At that point it starts to get less topical to our conversation, lol.
(But it is a VERY funny video. And aggressively Australian)
@corlin We now live in the age of the influencer... follower size matters for them. I prefer quality over quantity.
@fightgoddess
I too.
But is it a cultural thing that can be overcome???
@corlin For me, there is nothing to overcome. I choose to focus my energies on the work that needs to be done in my community..
@corlin I was (and still am) on Twitter. Opened an acct in 2009. I have 66 followers. Mystery to me as well. But, then I mostly followed news organizations and tried my best not to engage with “commenters.”
@corlin remains to be seen. I suspect there's some parroting of other tech and it hasn't yet been capitalized on.
@corlin Bookshops are intensely moderated spaces that require a certain amount of clout / connection to even get on the shelf. Twitter replaces that human gatekeeping with mechanical popularity; the more people who follow you, the greater chance your ideas have to spread, and that's enough goal for many.
@thudfactor
Ok I get the mechanics.
I don’t get the psychology.
Why is it so important that an immense audience hear my opinions?
@corlin Oh, that! Yeah, can't answer that one. Maybe that's a Marshal McLuhan question? Or Douglas Rushkoff?
@corlin oh, thanks! Will take a look.
@corlin simple dopamine hit without having to exert any effort. Once there's a "big enough" number amd enough "likes" and enough attention, you can just look at that number any time you feel bad about yourself and go "wow! 47.6K people hit a button on their screen because of ME" - I'm gonna cut myself off here for now before I go too far off the deepend at 3:30am talking about psychology and human nature, but...yeah...that..
@corlin there is something about twitter that felt really competitive and often mean-spirited to me.
@corlin One word: validation.
@corlin My guess is it has something to do with the algorithm. More followers = more "engagement" which pushes people to the top of the pile of being heard and more "influential"as a result.
All a bunch of nonsense in my opinion. I have no interest in playing king of the hill when what I hoped to find was social connection, interesting people offering different and thoughtful content. Finding that here....
@corlin
Validation.