It feels like social media has created a world that is self feeding. People who are successful in terms of followers count on social media are successful because they are feeding the algorithm strategies for people to engage with the social media app. It is why the algorithm favors them and plays their content to new people helping them gain more followers. And in return they help the algorithm recruit more people who will post more new content. And usually the content that the algorithm favors is content that keeps the users engaged. I.e. it makes the users stay and watch the video longer. Most users want to live in the imaginary world that exists in their heads. The world of what if.. What if I quit my job and did the thing I really like. Social media is going to help me with that. If I were to become an influencer and have a big following, I would have a happy life. So they watch the content on social media that makes them submerge in the world of what if for 1 minute and 30 seconds (probably less than that because it needs some seconds to disassociate from the current world and submerge into the other one). But why would a high followers count make you happy? Are you an important person because of that?
What happens on social media with people with high followers count is that they become marketers. They help companies sell stuff. They get a deal for say $10,000 to promote a certain product. When this happens a couple of times, influencers have a decent income that enables them to do stuff they couldn’t have done with their old job. Go for a long vacation without asking your boss, travel economy plus or business class instead of the shitty economy class, go buy a coffee every day from your local coffee shop instead of making the coffee yourself. So the job as an influencer gets you more freedom and it sounds like it makes you happier. If we were to see the world in the eyes of more freedom = more happiness.
But how meaningful is that form of life, really? They are helping to sell products that they didn’t make, there is no way to verify whether they use these products or not. But they are making money out of this strategy and it is giving them the freedom of movement and the freedom of buying things. The question of meaning is still open though. Is that a meaningful life? Is the meaning of life about building stuff? Or could it also be about selling stuff? Usually engineers who build things are not good at selling it. They don’t have the characteristics of a sales person. You know what I am talking about? This gentleman, who smiles in a confident manner, who is interested in you and makes you feel that the first product is not what really suits you, but this other product is tailored for your personality (and your “needs”). Do these sales people have a meaningful life since they are not actually building anything? How different are influencers from sales people?