Almost ten years ago I started down a path as a social media influencer. I didn’t know what that was at the time. I didn’t even know the word existed. But it was a path that helped me to get thousands of people to follow me and listen to what I was trying to say.
Until one day I realized it was all fake. And it was ruining my life. Regardless of my best intentions. See I was trying to truly change the world one tweet at a time. Perhaps it’s best to start from the beginning.
I downloaded an app on my tablet that I heard mentioned a ton of times but truthfully knew zero about. Twitter.
You started by creating a profile. Then they had you pick interests. This was my kind of app. They were going to show me the things that interested me the most. So I picked bands, musicians, movie stars, and things I liked. I was on my way. But what is this followers thing? What was the tweet thing? Why would I like the tweet?
After a while of messing around, I eventually got the hang of what I was doing. And started even gaining a few followers. When I looked at what people were posting, a lot of it seemed like meaningless nonsense and opinion. But the app had a marvelous charm. People spewing their thoughts and passing on information.
Then there was a faceless group that seemed a bit scary. The Anon’s. Short for “Anonymous”. If you’ve heard of them you may have gotten the impression they are some sort of super hackers. But in fact, there are a lot of them that just spread information. As was the case for me. This group could be a bit mischievous and dark. But there was one of them that I loved the information he gave and his point’s of view. I followed him quite close. And even talked back and forth with him a few times.
Then one day it happened. His account got suspended. He was gone. I was ticked. What could have happened so bad that got him banned from Twitter? At that time I didn’t know. I presumed he said something that was offensive or bad. Possibly something that went against Twitter guidelines. He didn’t. But what is also true is that if enough complaints come in about an account, then Twitter has no choice but to take it serious and put a ban (temporary or permanent is up to them) on the account. And this person had no shortage of people that didn’t care for what he had to say.
The next day an account messaged me. It was him. Except it was a different account. Named the same. But it had a long number to make it different. He pled with me. “Create an account like mine. They keep taking my accounts offline. But if there are enough accounts and enough of us doing it they won’t be able to take us all down.” I agreed to help him. At one time I had almost 12 accounts. And I knew several others that had upwards of 20 plus. I had joined up with them.
But what was I going to talk about? What was I going to do? I sat and thought. What do I stand for? What do I believe? What things do I want to see change? These were the things I was going to dig up.
People have their own thoughts and feelings. So how do you reach people and get others to follow you? Simple. You disguise what they are reading as something innocent. Say a meme, gif, or something pointless and witty. While in the back ground pushing what you want said. Doing your best to make it look like it was the readers idea. And revolving it off of things that associate to them directly. You also do your best to include them in your material. And build them up.
Then there was the other way. Say things so controversial that the reader hates you. I had a tough time with this one truthfully. But I seen some use it like a paintbrush. See, if you pick out things that people like, they will follow you and share the things they feel they have in common. If you make them hate you though, they will spread your information 10 times as fast. Either way, it’s pushing your ideals to the readers. In my strongest times with my accounts I had around fifty thousand followers with all of my accounts. But some of other people posting were easily in the millions.
It was around the time when I had so many followers that I met a person. I was starting to question the collective I was apart of. And I had slowly pulled away from them. But this guy was a true blue person I thought the world of. We would share memes back and forth for hours. Making each other laugh. Talking back and forth about things going on that we wished would change. Most of the people I had associated with to this point were not real. They were just an account. And they were faceless and devoid of anything human. Not only did he see things the way I did, he brought a humanity to it. As he introduced me to some of his friends, I started to see more people like myself. These were real people in a real world. These were also people I became very close with. And consider to be great friends to this day.
But how about the rest of the people I was with? The ones I started with. I suddenly seen them too. Real people with real problems. People that almost seemed rock solid before, I could suddenly see what they really were. People just like myself that had feelings, emotions, and pain in their lives. Yet we were telling others how to live? What to think? Direction in their lives?
Something that I thought I was helping with, became quite evident of the issue. We were pushing what we wanted into others minds, but had problems with our own lives.
As I stood back I seen it. I had let my own life get out of control. I had huge problems in my life and my family. My life outside of the internet had fallen apart. At the end of the day, what I truly wanted was for people to think for themselves. For them not to just do something that was suggested. Or something that was just pushed onto them. I had let that happen to me. I drank the Kool-aid. I was pushing exactly what I wanted people to see. That was pushed onto me.
How did I finally snap out of it and realize what was going on? Here is the hard truth I learned. The internet is a wide expanse. And any fact you want to find, you can with enough time and persistence. Let me explain. If you search for aliens living among us, you will find it. If you look up aliens don’t exist, you will find that too. Both present themselves as truth. And you can find people that stand behind that on either side.
So what is real then? The painful fact? None of it. It’s all fake. There is nothing on the internet that is real. You just pick things in your own mind you want to see or things that have been pushed on you to believe. If you believe the world is about to end you will find the things online to support this. If you believe we are in the greatest times in human history, you will find that too.
I suddenly felt hopeless. I felt used. I seen that every post, meme, or thought had a narrative behind it. Whether that was money or control it is always there. I had to step back quick. Even when I watched the news, or a movie I seen what was happening. Much like Nemo in the movie the Matrix. Once you see the truth behind it, you can’t un-see it.
If you made it this far you may be asking yourself the question “Why are you still doing it now? Why are you writing for a blog? Or operating a Facebook page? What is your narrative?” And the answer is simple. I want you, the reader, to enjoy your life. I want you to hug your family. Kiss your spouse. Take care of your friends. I want you to support your community. I want you to volunteer. I want you to live your life the way you want it. Without care of political agenda or fear being pushed onto you. I want you to change the world for real. Not online. Not in The Matrix.
These are my confessions of the truth behind social media and what it did to me. I tell you them in hopes you don’t make the mistakes I did. And that you leave the Kool-Aid, in the cup.
Until next time.