Facebook and Self Promotion

Nothing in the history of the world confirms how mankind has yearned and lusted to be noticed, to be known, to be a celebrity (of sorts) than what the pages of Facebook reveal. All the simple, ordinary people we once knew who lived inconspicuous lives, some too camera-shy to have their pictures taken, some too reticent to say no more than hello to you, are today on Facebook, telling the world every last detail of themselves, posting pictures of themselves, sometimes daily, sometimes hourly, as if a moment passes and there is no new post about them the world might stop spinning and there would be some kind of cosmic apocalypse and the universe as we know it would no longer be the same.

Facebook makes one realise how the world desired to be on TV, in the newspapers, in magazines, but because these media featured the news-makers of the day – the stars of entertainment and showbiz, the politicians, the crooks and criminals etc, - the average Joe and Jane made it be known that such “cheap” publicity was not their cup of tea and that they would rather remain unknown than have their pictures appear in them.

Now we know it was all a fox and the grapes posturing as the fox in his slyness calls the grapes sour because he couldn’t get it. In modern psychology, it is called the law of cognitive dissonance – i.e. the greater the expenditure, the greater is the psychological need to justify it. So the average person or lesser mortal if you may, has not the slightest clue how one gets into the newspaper and so dismisses the whole idea of it as an exercise in, yes, cheap self promotion.

Enter Mark Zuckerberg and in a transcendental stroke of genius enters the soul of mankind, reads it as a palm reader does ones hand and sees that all of us are dying to be known, to be celebrities, and so he gives us Facebook and does like a God and says, make it in your own image and likeness.

And so Facebook is filled with the once shy and self effacing persons who now number 2.07 billion monthly active users. Of course, most of the active users would be those who took to it as the proverbial duck to water. It gives users a chance to take a front row seat in the theatre of life; to show the world how pretty (preddy) they are and to welcome with bated breath the adulation of friends, family and admirers: O, you look so pretty! You're so gorgeous! Lovely outfit etc, are the comments the Facebook poster boy or girl receives and is gleefully welcomed as confirmation of their beauty.

Facebook serves as an ego-boosting medium for millions who are starved for attention. Before Facebook there surely would have been persons who never got a compliment that made them out to be a star of some kind. Now, if one posted a new picture every day there would be admirers dishing out compliments to you as if it was a paid job and one got a commission for making the most generous comments.

From that perspective, Facebook has turned out to be the best motivational medium for persons who need to have their self-confidence turbo charged. For truly, I have seen posts with look-alike Godzillas and clones of the creature from the black lagoon, and saw where the compliments they received made them out to be nothing less than the beauty of the century. Facebook in that regard shows that mankind is kind and that most people would rather say something good to you and about you than hurt your feelings with the terrible truth. Facebook brings out the best in most people as it has become a forum where everybody is one big family and most everybody has one another’s back.

What intrigues me though is the posting of pictures of one’s meals. I am amazed that one’s meal which should be a private matter between the diner and his gastronomy is openly displayed for the world to see and for some to actually beg to partake of. I always wonder to myself if this act of show-off has something to do with a food shortage that that person might have experienced sometime in his/her life and that having a banquet-size meal now calls for an extravagant display of it. 

Mark Zuckerberg has made the world an open book courtesy his creation. People are not afraid to reveal intimate details about themselves on Facebook and matters that were once secrets people held close to their chests, today, in the open-market, free-for-all atmosphere of this medium, people are tempted to bare their souls, if not their bank accounts.

Its ability to provide free matchmaking services makes it a gift for persons seeking to hook up with like-minded persons and one hears and reads of marriages actually happening as a result of Facebook providing them the opportunity to rendezvous and get familiar, fall in love.

Facebook is touted as the online advertising medium to promote ones business because of its user base of 1.49 billion members worldwide, and 22 billion ad clicks per year.

You read that and wonder how the world existed before it, but you also begin to understand why Mark Zuckerberg at age 33 is already worth 72.3 billion dollars (in 2017).

By Anonymous