Reblog from Diana Rikasari

I am concerned about this whole social media phenomenon. When I say this, I might sound like an outlier, or like an oldie who still uses Nokia. But I am not. I am inside the social media circle and in fact an active user.

When I started blogging back in 2007, the intention to blog was to purely write out of love. I loved the idea of owning a space in this world where we get to express our thoughts and feelings without being steered by anyone else but us. It was lovely, and the ecosystem felt friendly and genuine too. As fellow bloggers, we would visit each other's blog like neighbors do. We would keep track of our stats, and get excited when someone leaves a comment. But we keep all this info to ourselves, just to track our own progress. I also noticed that bloggers became bloggers because we had this commonality of being shy and socially awkward in real life, so blogging was our way to communicate better to the world; through laptops and keyboards. And suddenly, blogging became a "thing", bloggers became the "thing". Bloggers received the brightest spotlight, made headlines, made money, but believe it or not, when you meet bloggers from this era, they are still the same old authentic people they were. Fame did not change these bloggers. Because they, me, we received all this recognition and acknowledgment over a long time. It was not instant. And fame was never the goal. Fame was a byproduct of our love, hardwork and consistency.

And then came Instagram. I would say, Instagram changed the whole game. Instagram made people become addicted to everything fast and everything short. People no longer want to open blogs because blogs are too lengthy to read and takes longer time to load. "Instagram has everything I need to know" - faster and shorter. And this cultivated the culture of stalking. I remember the number of blogs I would read on a weekly basis were no more than 20, but on Instagram, we follow hundreds and thousands of accounts, and boy is that a lot of info. Because of this, we no longer seek the depth of a person. Instead, we capture what we see on the surface through a quick scroll of square-shaped photos and cheeky captions. Because of this, Instagrammers try very hard to project a feed that looks pretty to make people stop scrolling and click on their accounts. And 'Instagram formulas' came to life. "Keep yourself small and show more of the ambience. Show more of the beach. The cafes. The mountains. This country. That country. Show where you are. Show what you wear. Show what you eat. Tag the location.". Instagram cultivated a culture of showing off. And this created a cycle of a never ending stalking and showing off. Suppliers show off, demanders stalk. The more you show off, the more they will stalk. And stalkers equal to followers. The more stalkers, the more number of followers. The more number of followers, the higher you are in today's social hierarchy. Boom. Fame became a goal.

When fame is a goal, it is dangerous. It creates obsession over likes and followers that don't even matter in real life. Because when fame is a goal, things are no longer authentic. You do everything it takes to maintain and increase your fame value. You fabricate stories. You buy followers. You keep stocks of photos to upload over the next one week to look like your cafe-hopping every single day. But why lie to your followers? They are jealous of you and see yourself as #lifegoals, but little do they know, you are living a lie - no matter how big or small.

Of course, this does not go to everyone. But truthfully, there is a big chunk of people who ignorantly enjoys and benefits from these lies. One must not belittle the power of social media. In fact, it is the most powerful platform in spreading influence. So spread good influence. Spread realness. Spread kindness and good behavior. Spread quality. Focus on building yourself rather than your feed. Write to inspire, not to merely impress. Be responsible because your followers look up to you. No matter which platform you are on - blog or Instagram - you are an agent of change.