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Even a lot of regular people these days are caught up in the addiction of getting the maximum amount of engagement out of everything they post online. They don't want to talk to people. They want thousands of strangers to praise them. So the bigger the network the more likely they can accomplish this.

I'd wager for some individuals something might not even be worth doing if they can't be seen by thousands of strangers doing it.



> I'd wager for some individuals something might not even be worth doing if they can't be seen by thousands of strangers doing it.

“Prank” channels come to my mind at this. Like the one that got shot semi-recently for messing with people, who then said it was “worth it”.

It’s a shame how hard people can hyperfocus on fake Internet points and even let it hurt their actual relationships. I had a friend who was intensely upset over a comment suggesting a new camera angle because it “made their channel look bad” to be constructively criticized.


The human brain wasn't made for this.

Seeing the effects of social interactions with millions of people (albeit virtual) does something weird to the brain.


I agree, but I also think it's a completely unsurprising outcome. Pre-internet, there were lots of people who wanted to be famous, and idolized movie and TV stars and the like. With these sorts of internet platforms, those types of people actually do have a shot at being well-known, if not outright famous, in a way.


> They want thousands of strangers to praise them.

And the irony is that the people who think this way tend to be less likely to have anything worthwhile to offer.


Toddler learning strikes again. Doing good gets you a token acknowledgement. Creating a mess of some sort gets it instant and intense. Yet people are always surprised that people don't do good for attention despite essentially ignoring it themselves.... People by and large tend to have little self-awareness unfortunately.




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