Slavery of Engagement

When I first mentioned I was going to abandon my socials and write a blog, I had many different responses, but one of them caught my attention: but what about the engagement?

Simply put – I don’t give a flying fuck about engagement. And, unless it’s someone’s job to create content that requires engagement, which is not my case, I do not understand why us, average people with average lives, should even think about online engagement.

I think about my online presence the same way as I think of my home, or my personal phone number. If there is something I do *not* want is engagement by random strangers, because it makes no sense. Chances are, if you are reading this, we have interacted before. Or else why would you be interested in my life to begin with?

But why do so many people want strangers liking their everyday lives? If I could guess, I’d say people like to dream they can become a celebrity and get rich fast. The theory of engagement is that if you get enough of it, it’s a shortcut to making millions and being recognized.

A tale as old as time, no one gets rich fast, and that idea is just a scam sold by mega corporations to, instead, make themselves richer. Every picture you post, every moment of engagement you crave – Meta, Google and others make money off you.

The quick boost of dopamine of 10, 20 likes quickly wears off, and you will have the urge to post again soon, more engagement. Meanwhile, the billionaire corporation has billions of users just like you driving traffic to their site, and is effectively getting richer. Who wins?