Manufacturing Participation Pressure
Was looking at the reblog discussion related to dpstyles thoughts on the Feltronification of Tumblr. Zach offered his perspective as well…
“It’s not the infographics on the page that interest me, rather it’s the trend of emphasizing a user’s popularity on the network. Lamentably, I think this metric will come to define the experience for the next generation of social networks. I fear that the internet’s utility for many people will equate to constant awareness of one’s value, and the play of meaningless games to increase the sum. This in turn will render many networks impersonal and irrelevant. Like a candidate’s bid speech for high school class presidency, I fear my Tumblr dashboard will become padded with ‘popular stuff’ sure to garner votes rather than the intimate, vulnerable and quirky bits that I’ve enjoyed, and define Tumblr’s personality.
I’m disappointed by Tumblarity, and Ashton’s follower count for the same reasons. I liked the Internet better when it was nebulous, and now I’m depressed that it shaping up to be a social pyramid.”
I fall more on the side of Zach on this debate. While I see the appeal of ranking, rating and competing (and there is certainly a lust for it in our culutre)…I can’t help but get the sinking feeling when I see these rolled out that they are just another tool for the platform to drive usage through through what I refer to as “manufactured participation pressure”. Who has the most posts, followers, likes, loves, reblogs etc etc etc.
Personal branding will only continue to be more powerful, but wasn’t the true beauty of these online communities that it facilitated easier connecting to loved ones and more meaningful connections with interesting new people? This new “social pyramid” that Zach refers to screams of high school cliques and prom queen voting and I don’t have a secret desire to head back to that time in my life.
Now, let me be clear, I’m a fan of come good ole friendly competition. Through LVHRD we utilized it to amplify the experience of physical interactions. It was a way to increase the options for conversations with someone next to you and facilitate the rush of natural endorphins among the competitors. But once the competition ended and people hugged and congratulated each other, they made plans to meet up later or collaborate on a new project. They didn’t linger in the darkness ranking and comparing themselves to everyone else at the event.
This kind of online, personal brand engineering seems a bit trite. Its just another form of peer pressure, a phenomenon our culture has railed against for years, to manufacture product engagement. Are we heading to place where this will actually become a form of personality filtering? Where people who agree with Zach’s opinion will gravitate away from the over competitive connectivity and spend more time searching for and investing in moments that are private, vulnerable and intimate.
This doesn’t mean I won’t look at the figure occasionally and continue to play with these tools on a daily basis, but at the end of the day if my Tumblarity is off the charts, has it given me anything besides a feeling of guilt*?
*Looking at the others who share my current Tumblarity score…thats what I’m currently feeling.
