The Unspoken Rules of Social Media That Everyone Follows
The Unspoken Rules of Social Media That Everyone Follows
Social media seems to be natural and real but we are all just enforcing some unspoken rules that no one has taught us.
You waste 20 minutes in order to make a selfie one that seemed casual look like it was effortless. You remove the posts that are not liked in hours. You just post your highlight reel and so does everybody else and it makes you believe that they live better.
It is a kind of like-for-like system which is unwritten. When a person constantly likes your posts, you have to like his/her post. The highest engagement is made on Sunday night posts as everybody is avoiding thoughts of Monday. The maximum number of weeks that you can boast of victories is one week.
We pack good news in disguise: “You know I hate that I have to get up early to get this dream job and you know I have to go to this job interview! Any posts that commence with comments like I do not normally discuss personal matters are never accidental. We are not only depleting our genuine moments, but even doing so in a kind of show.
Obedience is based on numbers of followers. Stories are informal, posts are enduring, DMs are actual connections. We can all see people who unfollow us, and we pretend that it does not matter. We write to certain individuals, yet pretend it was to the whole world – that fitness photo is to your high school friends.
No one seems to have a better vacation than you since we are all employing the same tricks and are presenting the worst of the times. We are losing a game we made jointly.
The shocking thing about this is as follows: everybody knows these rules exist and we adhere to them strictly, yet we never discuss them. The social media was simulating an alternative reality having its own laws that are invisible and we all became citizens without any idea.
The sites also earn billions as we jump around to the rules which we never consented to. And now that you have seen the game you cannot take your eyes off it. Any spontaneous caption you make, any low-engagement post you delete – you will know the trend.
Which rule hit you hardest? The like-for-like obligation? The highlight reel conspiracy? The three-try deletion shame? And frankly – which of you will continue to follow although you now know it is made up?
The actual one: what are you going to do now that the game is out?
This is a perfect definition of what is meant by the unspoken rules that we all abide by in social media without ever having accepted them. It struck me the pressure of the highlight-reel and the like for like cycle it is crazy how we package our lives to look good at the same time we are pretending that it is so easy. This is the initial move towards making more deliberate use of these platforms rather than letting them creep up and take control of us.
This speaks volumes, especially the highlight reel conspiracy. I think the real step now is to post more honestly, even if it’s not “perfect,” and remind ourselves that social media is a game we don’t have to keep playing by the unspoken rules.
This point of view strikes home quite literally since one is able to find out about the unspoken rules that the majority of us have been adhering to unknowingly.
Social media can be viewed as a never-ending act; however, I believe that the only solution is to be more conscious when utilizing it. Rather than feeding off likes or deleting posts that do not work, we can attempt to treat it as a platform to honestly share with, even if fewer people view its content. The value of a post at the end of the day must be that which it means to us, rather than the numbers that it gets.
The game can be established based on some unseen rules, and yet we do get to make choices as to the extent of playing in accordance with these rules. The first step could be to choose authenticity, even in minor details, and begin to change the way we all use these platforms.