Ego booser 2.0

Good news, everyone: Twitter is taking a serious step to drive us ever closer to our pipe dream of total self-validation.

The social media giant has announced a new feature that will allow all Twitter users, from the biggest celebrities right down to those tired women in your morning lectures, to see the number of folks that have viewed their individual tweets.

While Twitter has long offered this option for large businesses advertisers as a way to measure their fanbase, it is just now becoming available for the average user. Albeit one with an iPhone, as tweet views are part of a new update for their iOS app.

Essentially, it includes a visible-view count included with each tweet posted, updated regularly with every new, singular click.

Though we acknowledge the usefulness of such a feature with businesses, entrepreneurs and other community-minded endeavors, the Editorial Board ultimately believes that with the common user, it promotes little more than our already substantial self-obsession.

Indeed, the move appears in itself a way to add fuel to the ever raging fire of narcissism that seems to engulf most social media sites we engage in nowadays. And it’s all for the sake of staying on the websites longer, which translates to more advertising dollars for the parent companies.

Every post we make on pages like Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr — whether it is a selfie, a Gandhi quotation or an in-depth deconstruction of problematic ideologies as present in “Degrassi: The Next Generation” — is enabled with the option for others to “like,” “heart,” “favorite” or otherwise validate the tidbit we’ve shared.

At best, these options allow users to enjoy a feeling of connection or popularity. At worst, they can be utilized insidiously, oftentimes solely as a way to gain attention or self-justification.

Twitter is actively encouraging those of us who actually put real emotional stock in our online reach by allowing users to not only see this information, but also the total amount of people who have happened upon their posts.

Such stock is, of course, important for musicians, artists, comedians, writers and others who seek to gain a wide public exposure for their careers, but for us average joes it does little more than endorse our narcissism.

It encourages a difference between posting an Instagram of that new book you purchased because you’re legitimately excited about going home to read it, or because you want to cultivate the idea of yourself as an intellectual in the minds of those who view your feed.

The narcissistic component of Twitter view counts becomes even more suggestive when considering its effect on “internet-famous” users who gain their popularity via YouTube videos or blogs.

Seeing how many — or few — people actually look at their posts will likely substantiate their feelings of cultural relevance and mild celebrity.

It’s not the worst thing in the world, but it’s definitely not helping. While we’re too busy making shirtless vlogs and gif sets of ourselves for the sake of totally tasteful self-promotion, we’re ignoring the reality that actually matters — our communities.  

The Editorial Board can see Twitter’s new feature being beneficial to some. But we believe above all it will just be another distraction at our fingertips.

It’s certainly an interesting effort on behalf of the developers for more streamlined use. But ultimately, it serves little purpose than to cement the image of the Millennial Generation as one whose egos are only as big as our love for instant
gratification.  

opinion@idsnews.com
@IDS_Opinion