There is something to be said about the fact that social media users do not even both to use their own social networking websites in a lot of cases. Perhaps it should tell us that there is something not so dandy about using these websites in the first place. We might all need to take a step back and think about how we are using something that the founders even admit are designed to be addictive.
If you look into how even someone like Mark Zuckerberg uses Facebook, you will quickly discover that it looks nothing like the way that you or I do. He has people write posts for him, take perfectly-staged photos, and add other tidbits here and there about whatever is going on in his life. The bottom line is that he is almost never on his own website from his personal profile. He just takes care of the site from the technical side of things (he doesn’t even do much of that these days). He knows to stay off of his own website due to its addictive nature and the fact that he wouldn’t be able to get nearly as much done if he was on there like we are.
This is not a story that is unique to Zuckerberg or Facebook, reports theguardian.com. It is not some quirky thing about his particular personality that makes him this way. Instead, it is the general policy followed by most executives at social media companies.
Take a look at Twitter and you will see that things generally work out the same way. The CFO of the company has been on Twitter for six years, yet he sends a total average of two tweets per month. That tells you that once again, these people are not playing the games that they design.
Some people had their bubble burst when Sean Parker (an early President of Facebook) said that he objects to social media in general these days. He says that he knows that Facebook was created to capture as much of a person’s attention and time as possible. Basically, as long as the site could take over your attention, they were fine with putting anything into it that met that objective. These are the kind of things that have many considering pulling the plug on their social media accounts. It might just be helpful for them to unplug from these things to get more control over their life.
Dil Bole Oberoi
