The illusion of Social Media

An artist whose work I respect quite a lot posted earlier today that he was amazed by the number of friends he had vs the number of comments he got on work, events etc.  I have to say that I feel the same thing on here, I have 392 "friends" on here but far less than half that as "Likes" on my studio site...I won't go there because it's just whining.

Ron Gilbert coined the phrase "The illusion of Interactivity" back in my Lucasfilm days, convincing the player that they have freewill when, in fact, they are only hamsters in a semi complex maze. Facebook and other social media sites want us to believe that all of our "friends" on the site see all of our posts.  That is what most people actually INFER, despite the fact that FACEBOOK (in particular) send out memos about changes in their service, usually to the benefit of the investors and the detriment of subscribers, but these are read less then they are and get lost in the wash of cast photos and raging political trolls.

At best estimate you can expect 35% of your "friends" (how many of these folks have you actually met?).  Once you actually send out to the people FACEBOOK selects to send your post to it appears in those peopl'e newsfeed.  There it competes with political rants, adorable cats, FACEBOOK ads and TONS of articles on LINKBAIT sites.

Now we get into a Social media version of the Drake Equation, you have sent out the post (to the people who FACEBOOK or whoever think should receive it), it has been dumped into the social bouillabaisse of their news feed, you have fended off the linkbait, avoided the internet street corner screamer, pummeled the cat (doggedly telling you to HANG IN THERE) and have arrived at your viewer.  At this point you have to make enough an impact on their retina to wake them up and get their attention.  Then you have to get past the mental "shrug" of them just thinking "huh" then going back to the cat picture for their daily motivation.

So you have gotten past the FABCEBOOK Gate Keepers, ended off the adorable animals, gotten their attention...NOW you have to get them to ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING! Social media for the most part is there for people to AVOID doing something, and you want them to PARTICIPATE?? They have to move the mouse to click the LIKE button, to comment they have to THINK!

Look at the shape of the world these days do you see much evidence of people actually THINKING???

So if you actually reach a few individuals who respond, count yourself blessed!