Resistance is futile

A while ago I wrote a post about suggestions for topics to write about.  In that post I discussed the reasons why I write about certain things.  There have been some events lately mostly political but some of them have just been part of life which have happened that seemingly everyone has been talking about.  Whilst this blog is a representation of what is going on in my mind, it is a lot more controlled in terms of release schedules.  I write posts for it and schedule them and try to keep the times I release new posts to something that resembles structure and routine.  There is a forgiveness then when things happen and there isn't a post on here that addresses the issue, in fact posts on here are rarely about current events.  Social media however seems to be the exact opposite.

Social media is a place where people expect immediate gratification, and depending on the platform, people often expect immediate replies.  Social media is seen as being something that is more invasive, or pervasive as the case may be, when it comes to our personal lives.  There is less tolerance for delay and very little forgiveness when you don't follow the herd mentality.  When events of cultural significance happen, there is a pressure felt on social media for people to comment on those events.  Even when events can be argued as insignificant, if enough people have already commented, you're expected to do so too.  The peer pressure that can result in these situations is one of the things I dislike about having any sort of online presence whatsoever.  It's not limited to an individual either, although I can only speak from personal experience as an individual, I do know from professional experience that those who work with social media and have a business with a significant online presence there is an expectation that they comment on things even when it has no relation to their business whatsoever.

I've come to the conclusion that the reason this has become such a prevalent part of online society is because humanity as a whole expects conformity.  People don't like it when you don't conform.  People really don't like it if rules and expectations that are placed upon them are not seen to be placed upon you too - even when arguably the only reason those expectations and constraints were placed upon them was because they asked for them or expected them.

Conformity is something that isn't easy to gauge in others when we have little exposure to their day to day lives, the result therefore is that people expect social media to be a place where you share every waking thought, and if you don't post it, you didn't think it.  If you didn't think it, then "how dare you not care about this thing that I care so much about!" seems to be the immediate reaction.  When did we as a society reach the point where we care so much about what other people think?  I know there will be some that will argue that they don't care what others think and will give examples of how they set themselves apart from the rest of society, but the irony there is by actually comparing yourself to other people, you're demonstrating an awareness of what they do and how they think.  You might not care what they think of you, but you care enough about what they think to try and distance yourself from what they think.

Short of bowing out of society as a whole and living in ignorance and isolation for the rest of your life I don't actually see how you can truly escape what other people think.  As long as you have to remain part of society as a whole there will remain to be a comparison between you and it.  Like a single pixel on a screen you will be seen whether you want to be part of the picture or not.  It really comes down to how inconspicuous you are or how much you stand out from everyone else.  That in itself is a measure of conformity, with the more you stand out being the more likely you are singled out.