by ted2112, HSM team writer

Just what the hell is social media, exactly?

It’s something most of us use every day, from big corporations right down to you and I — but have we really thought about it? More and more social media sites pop up to gather masses and offer a platform for us to do whatever we want with it. Like Baskin-Robbins, there are many different flavors. Some, like Twitter, are built around brief prose, and users are able to follow many in a short time. Some like Facebook are more demanding and require a more intimate connection to those we converse with.  Some have more in common with performance art, where users post a video or song for those they know — and many more they don’t.

Frankly, I consider social media a kind of reality computer game. We log on and are entertained with stories and visual media that take us to new places. It’s a new high-tech spin on verbal history where we recount our daily struggles and success with those around us; and with all the flash, bells and whistles it makes it fun and keeps us logging back in for more.

So, what is it about these social media sites that have membership in the billions? What drives us to overcome our feeling of privacy and post a picture of ourselves or our random thoughts that anyone can see, and just what kind of sharing is this? With a patched in, lightspeed connection to the world, the virtual becomes real and the real is becoming virtual. A blurry line of who we are and the digital representation of a collective consciousness seamlessly mix together in a dance of information. We participate in the dance, but like a masquerade ball we are masked and anonymous if we want to be.

In very few ways in life is this possible. In the real world, to interact means to stand face to face with a fellow carbon-based life form. In the digital realm you many never meet the person behind the avatar, or even be on the same continent. In many ways this is the vector for openness and feeling of safety in this fast river of data. Some want to stand out and tame the rapids; some want to simply drift down the data stream.

In this way, social media has become a game unto itself. Like trophies, users gather followers, likes and favorites. Like clubs, fams or political parties, users join groups of the like-minded to move forward a cause or passion with sheer numbers. There are rewards, winners and losers. Some rise, some quit and most are looking for the next big thing to get in on the ground floor.

In many ways, just like a game, social media can be thrilling. In fact, many social media sites have games that run embedded within them. Farmville is not, to my knowledge, a real place — and if it was, I’d place it somewhere east of Hell. Yet that doesn’t stop millions from toiling away at digitally planted fields and telling everyone they know about it without a speck of dirt under their fingernails.

Social media can be a popularity contest, and sites like YouTube users can actually make money from advertisements. It’s a corporate world validation of just how awesome you are.

But are you? Can any of us live up to our carefully crafted digital reputations?

I don’t think I could, I’m frankly just not that cool, or have the time to groom my digital self. But that doesn’t mean I don’t like my fair share of rubbing virtual elbows on social media.

I would love to see more honesty in this meta-gaming of life, sometimes with the desire to put your best foot forward and all the virtual pats on the backs waiting out there; who has time for that? The best bio I ever read in all of social media was, “I like to point at things and laugh.” Now that’s a person I want to follow! Honesty is relative and everyone want to look their best online, but wouldn’t it be funny if your cover picture on social media sites was one of you if you were suddenly woken up at four am by an air horn? Now that’s honesty!

But it’s not about honesty, is it? It’s about taking the social part of social media and creating a kind of best representation of one’s self, saying clever things and showing pictures of your food. It’s a game of one-upmanship. I particularly hate all the sunny, warm pictures of people’s vacations when I’m freezing in the cold winter months. It’s like, okay, I’m happy for you, but don’t rub it in my face.

(Also, take it easy with the selfies. We are becoming a society of our own paparazzi, hunting for that perfect angle.)

Social media is still in its infant stage and didn’t even exist at the birth of Home; it’s a new form of whatever the hell it is. Frankly, we haven’t decided yet. Maybe it’s a great tool of communication that has created a global village, or just simple entertainment. It could possibly be a powerful publishing counterweight to the existing establishment, or just maybe it’s a great way to show cute pictures of your cat.

Whatever this evolving media is — be it game, communication tool, or something else — social media has pushed the right buttons. Even though i’m still not one-hundred-percent sure just how to define it, I use it almost everyday to get my fix of news, to see what my friends and family are up to, and enjoy funny videos of people wiping out or falling down.

If you like this article, please feel free to follow me on Twitter. I try to say clever things and occasionally post pictures of my food and myself that wasn’t taken when I was suddenly awoken at four in the morning by an air horn.

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One Response to “Is Social Media A Game?”

1. Gary160974 says:

   May 22, 2014 at 5:51 am

   It’s too many things to quantify. Really it’s what you make it. If you decide to make it a way of getting in touch with people that you wouldnt be able to in any normal realm of reality. That’s what it becomes for you. If you use it to troll etc it becomes a game to you. All you have to remember is that to you it may not be a game but to someone else it could.

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