I applaud your decision to stay off social media, and think you should continue to abstain.
That said, if you actually want to understand why the platform is or was popular to begin with you have to go beyond just viewing it as a masochistic FOMO factory. That’s an angle that gets talked about a lot in the wider media but it really is only a part of the story, and IMO a lesser one in the grand scheme of things.
There’s certainly an element of curated bragging to be sure, but in my experience what really keeps people engaged isn’t the unsubtle boasting but the outright fighting. FB users will quite literally treat their friend list as a stand-in for the broader world and vent their rage accordingly. For every “check my sunny vacay” post there are like 5 more along the lines of “YOU STUPID LIBS/CONS ARE RUINING THE UNIVERSE AND HERE IS WHY…”
That animosity and the back and forth exchanges it fosters is the really dark secret sauce at the heart of the experiment. Hate will always generate attention with the quickness, and it easily trumps envy as an engagement driver.
That said, if you actually want to understand why the platform is or was popular to begin with you have to go beyond just viewing it as a masochistic FOMO factory. That’s an angle that gets talked about a lot in the wider media but it really is only a part of the story, and IMO a lesser one in the grand scheme of things.
There’s certainly an element of curated bragging to be sure, but in my experience what really keeps people engaged isn’t the unsubtle boasting but the outright fighting. FB users will quite literally treat their friend list as a stand-in for the broader world and vent their rage accordingly. For every “check my sunny vacay” post there are like 5 more along the lines of “YOU STUPID LIBS/CONS ARE RUINING THE UNIVERSE AND HERE IS WHY…”
That animosity and the back and forth exchanges it fosters is the really dark secret sauce at the heart of the experiment. Hate will always generate attention with the quickness, and it easily trumps envy as an engagement driver.