Bytes-in-the-game
Back in the day, during one of my rare moments of extra socialization at a nightclub, something even rarer happened to me: a woman approached me to start a conversation out of the blue, just like that.
After exchanging a few banal words to share standard information, she expressly asked me for my Instagram or any social media profile to check on me. However, I don't use any of them, so I politely declined her proposal, suggesting that this real-life conversation may be more effective if we genuinely want to get to know each other.
Well, I was far from imagining her reaction: she basically blasted me with a furious verbal pamphlet to explain that I was a fake. Yes, a fake. The fact that I would use no social media made it impossible for her to check on my real-life claims and what I was telling about myself and my life, which, if you ask me, was by no means extraordinary. Basically, she needed my Instagram to make sure I was not some sort of... real-life fake? Here's the trick: this was my first experience of truth's digital reversal, where what happens on bytes, network layers, and internet cables weighs more on people's perception than what your flesh self actually shows.
In those good old times, I still had some time to express standard politeness in the face of such intellectual offense, despite my limited mastery of the English language that prevented me from responding with fury to our digital soldier. Instead, I politely suggested to her the paradox: she should be more suspicious of profiles showcasing glamorous men with displays of wealth and yachts. Indeed, It is easier to take a picture on a boat, post it as if it were your own yacht, than to actually earn enough money to buy the boat. She left the conversation with no answer and just told me it was so weird (with a New York nasal accent).
Good, that was five solid years before ChatGPT became a globally renowned shared brain, and influencers convinced the world it was attractive to be made up of 80% polyester.
Offline injection
What can sound like an anecdote, and is just an anecdote, is actually quite a scary large-scale phenomenon. Before digging into the topic, I want to make it very clear that one can achieve real things online, and the point is not to discredit all online achievements.
The point here is that, some humans think that, in 2023, any offline contribution to your life must be equally weighted by its online equivalent, as if the sincerity of your speech, your body language, and your ability to bring genuineness in real life were worthless without digital stamps accrediting the thesis of your own greatness. Please go at the digital gate and pay with likes and followers before daring speaking to me, you weirdo.
Some things in life can't be shared online, and most of the good things in existence can't be proven online. It's not because you're smiling in your LinkedIn profile picture that you love your job, and it's not because you take a picture in front of a Lamborghini that you own one. Also, it's not because you show up with your Lambo at a restaurant and don't show it on Instagram that it's not your Lamborghini. In fact, I argue that posting a picture of your car increases the probability of you being perceived as a desperate loser who leases luxury cars for a few nights to impress whoever needs to be impressed. You and I have no Lamborghini anyway, but you got the example.
What will happen now that truth's digital reversal has taken place? We previously discussed the futile implications at a micro-level, and my inability to socialize with an Instagram addict for more than a few minutes is not quite the generational impact I want to talk about here.
However, small and seemingly risk-free interactions often embed more than one can imagine. I bet you'll learn more about a country and its citizens by observing how people chit-chat and witnessing the random interactions between the wealthy and the less fortunate, the people in the streets, rather than solely relying on the top-tier researchers and politicians of that country talking about it.
Skin-in-the-speech
It’s no longer skin-in-the-game, but skin-in-the-speech, or skin-in-the-pitch.
At a time when people can transfer abstract, non-tangible achievements into another abstract, non-tangible but measurable social validation, incentives to be real are slowly decreasing to zero, and genuineness is slowly overlapping with complete weirdness. It’s a matter of time before we call people who are able to talk to strangers in real-life "social maniacs."
Our brain receives stimuli, and cheap dopamine, as well as distorted and fake perceptions of wealthiness and digitally measurable, though non-tangible, social validation, can go a very long way and actually turn into real profit, often at the expense of people who fall for the impostor comedy. The influencer’s economy is a zero-sum game where consumers only lose and get nothing.
Billions of humans are connected to the same network, where a myriad of clowns are pretending to know the secret of life. Whether it's about getting rich, being happy, or becoming attractive, they claim to have the answers. However, in reality, it often revolves around material possessions and the appearance of wealthiness, as they are the easiest things to fabricate. On the other hand, happiness is subjective and hard to measure, yet some individuals still feign to have unlocked its secret.
After some time, a small group of those clownish individuals end up actually making money and find a way to convince people that being a superficial, shallow influencer is actually a good way to make money, creating a massive leak from the cluster of normal people toward the influencer-to-be group. This reversal alters their entire framework of truth, as what can now bring real benefits must be completely digital. The digital nature and lack of concreteness in their claims are not merely a result of shallow social profiles using social media to propagate their message; it is a requirement. This is because none of their theses, ideas, or products would pass the test of a real-life market, and they would be quickly exposed.
The shallow era
For instance, let's consider a seller of fake skincare products on platforms like Instagram or Facebook Marketplace. Now, imagine for a moment that this seller decides to open a physical store in a real location, catering to actual clients in a small town. In this scenario, they would quickly be identified as a scammer, while the elderly residents of the town continue to grumble about their wrinkles and seek alternative solutions that don't involve healthier food choices or cutting back on liquor—though that's a separate debate. The same scammer, operating online, can easily continue selling their products and feigning effectiveness by purchasing fake reviews and relying solely on skin-in-the-speech.
Online feedback loops, when properly applied, can offer humans their greatest achievements and foster collective change. However, they have also opened the door to collective shallowness and transformed real-life interactions into a means of fueling online engagement further. More on this topic will be discussed next week.