It’s easy to shit on Facebook. That they and many technology companies have co-opted our need for gratification with gamification. And to be clear, I’m not saying they haven’t. Anyway, recently I received a few messages on the blog posts. Most of them very encouraging, some of them asking if I was okay.

Funnily enough, the past 6 posts were all written in the span of one hour Friday and scheduled to be posted. I think that’s why it’s easy to see a trend since there was a trend, but it was all in the span of one hour and not over 3 days, which means all the emo music didn’t really have a sort of long term message or anything. (seriously, this post is going to be published at 7 am. I’m never up at 7 am)

But back to the “point” of this post. It in a sense surprised even myself how much those messages from folks saying they enjoy the blog posts made me feel good. Like, ridiculous just smile to yourself good.

It made me think of social media co-opting this feeling and it made me wonder. Is it actually Social Media’s fault for using this? Or is the fault actually more in terms of how we live now a days? The lack of real communities where we belong. Yes, in a sense we’re more connected than ever and yes, it is easier to join a community, especially when you don’t feel like you fit in with those immediately around you.

I guess this is turning out to be one of those “What if the problem was inside of us all along?” kind of posts. And again, I don’t want to say the tech companies don’t have things to answer for. But perhaps we just need to fill this human need another way to be less susceptible to those tactics…

Sadly, I don’t think I have the answer to what that is.