The Economy Of Public Discourse
It’s easy to dismiss our desire for attention as just a byproduct of the changing media landscape. Sure, the new media landscape is different from the old model because everyone has to become his or her own greatest advocate on social media, which feels unnatural. But that is not to say that the urge to engage in self-promotion is not somehow rooted in human nature itself. People need social interaction, or, at least to fill the void temporarily, people need the illusion of social interaction, which social media readily provides.
Our need for social interaction and social acceptance is not a byproduct of anything we’ve created, it is an integral part of human nature that preceded (and perhaps drove) the creation of such outlets for networking. In this new space we find other people’s opinions are more readily available than ever, sometimes people even offer their opinions themselves up to the public domain in the hopes of receiving feedback the same way. One might say that the new media landscape has, thus, created a kind of economy out of public discourse, a hybrid of humanity’s innate need to receive feedback from others and the digitized vessel through which that can be quantified, distributed, and turned into a sort of currency we exchange and invest in.
To think about people’s opinions (in the form of content — particularly in the form of the comments accumulated by such content) as currency, of course, might allow us to re-frame the way that we understand our interactions on social media and other accessible outlets. Because it seems that this new economy of public opinion is a hybrid of the innate parts of humanity and the amoral platforms on the internet, it might also seem that our interactions with one another that occur on these platforms are also hybrids of the authentic interactions we have in real life and the framework of the content that the internet allows us to utilize for the purpose of communication.
In other words, it’s difficult to tell how authentic our interactions are with one another when we are interacting with a platform that is so removed from nature and history. This is not new. We’ve been having this discussion since the earliest days of social media, and it remains unclear just how authentic social media can allow us to be. The suggestion here, however, takes this a step further. Now that we’ve established that there is an inescapable element of inauthenticity on the internet, we may be able to reframe the way we think about our use of social media so that we can be wiser as we navigate the new media landscape.
How To Use Your Opinion In The Media Landscape Wisely
If your opinion is like currency, it might be wise to think of using it online as you would use currency. Make good investments, don’t overspend on frivolous things that eventually become wastes of time, and beware of buyer’s remorse. in other words, think of commenting or liking something as a form of purchase, think of how it may be wise to save comments for later if the content is not worthy, and understand the quality of the comments that you have to offer is a reflection of the character that you are playing on social media. That is not to say don’t be active on social media, but that it might be wise to budget your insights and decide which content is deserving of feedback before offering it, the same way we do with items we purchase.
We understand the way that inflation works, how the more dollars we print the more their value depreciates. It might be helpful, when online, to think of yourself this way, to choose to be just as dignified and reserved as you might be in the midst of a “real” dialogue. The inflation of comments and opinions on social media platforms is, perhaps the thing that decreases their value over time. It is also helpful to take advantage of real life in this instance, to take advantage of the insights that the external, physical world allows you to have and to reach a point where you genuinely feel you can best articulate them before attempting to do so in a more vapid public space that is, quite honestly, undeserving of thoughtful insights at the moment.
This is certainly a better way to think about using social media in a modern world where people are often thoughtless about the comments they spend because they are engaging with others out of boredom, anger, etc.
The Dangers Of Investing Too Much In Other People’s Opinions
We invest in people’s opinions on the new media landscape with the content that we produce. It can be extremely rewarding to put time and effort into something that we share in the public domain and watch as it righteously accumulates the commerce of likes and comments that it deserves. When the focus is primarily on the return on investment in this situation, however, we find ourselves not only willing to decrease the quality of the content that we share with others, but distorting our understanding of positive feedback to a point where we never truly get the chance to cash it in.
It is healthy to be open to other people’s opinions, especially for individuals who are crippled with shyness and fear of rejection. Social media can be a fantastic place for people who struggle with these things in the real world to get an understanding of what it is like to engage in some form of a dialogue with the outside world, even if it is transactional in nature. All in all, thought, when we are over-invested in other people’s opinions on social media, we are not engaging with it in the way that would be most fulfilling. It’s long been established that inauthenticity on the internet is inevitable, but that does not mean that we can learn how to incorporate some digital version of ourselves into this economy of public discourse in a way that is thoughtful and dignified.
