The Internet’s A Weird Place
Last week when I had my idea to offer Life Coaching to the person who offered to donate the most money to the victims of Oklahoma I was pumped.
As I usually do, I posted the link to my Facebook page hoping to generate some traction.
All I actually generated was crickets chirping, some tumbleweed and a couple of kindly thumbs up.
The views of the post was way lower than normal and I did something I don’t think I have ever done before. I deleted the Facebook link and re-posted it.
The response, or lack thereof was the same.
There were a few shares from the Facebook link from my site, but none from Facebook itself.
Then I published a flippant cartoon about the Outernet (see right) and within 2 hours well over 1,100 people had viewed it, 17 had shared it and over 30 people had thumbed it up.
I just wonder if the Internet is desensitizing people?
That because there are so many calls on us to help this great charity or that great cause we switch off.
After all, nobody can respond to every request for their online help because they come so thick and so fast.
I even had one person in the comments of the original post lambast me for supporting a cause so close to home because there are more deserving people in places like Syria and Haiti.
To me that’s nonsense.
Human suffering is human suffering is human suffering.
I don’t give a shit what flag you sit under, what color your skin is, what language you speak, who you pray to, or what your political affiliations are.
Losing your house, your belongings and heaven forbid your kids and/or family members is going to cause massive suffering irrespective of the wealth of the nation you live in.
This post genuinely isn’t an admonishment of anybody, that isn’t my style when it comes to personal choice.
In fact it’s the last thing on my mind, because I have a belief system that thinks most people are good people.
I just worry that as we get bombarded with more and more bad news that the easy option is to try and get away from it by sharing a slightly amusing cartoon.
I’d love your take and feel free to let loose on me if you think I’m being a miserable curmudgeon.
Great post and directly in line with my experience. I will get tons of hits on a stupid cat picture, but if I post something that will help people it might cause only a tick of interest, if that.
As has already been commented, I think it comes from several factors. First Facebook is constantly manipulating how posts are shown (my theory is that everything is slanted for you to use their advertising.) Besides that, pictures do seem to do better on Facebook. I have taken to post a dramatic picture and then have a text call to action. I think people just gravitate to picture more than text. Finally I think people go on Facebook for release and really are not looking for anything heavy on it.
So it is what is is at least until Facebook plays with their algorithm again…
I need to post more cat pictures!
I’ve had similar results when I’ve attempted to support a “cause” on my blog. Last holiday season I gave away a eBook I worked my buns off to create for a measly $5 donation to feed families at Christmas. I got lots of great comments, but hardly anybody took the bate. I ended up cutting it short and just submitted a donation myself. I thought well, maybe it was the book – but I stuck it up on Amazon and the darn thing has sold really well!
NOW, here’s the other side of that coin. Ever since I made that donation to Feed America they have been driving me crazy! I get 2 – sometimes 3 letters from them a week asking for donations – every week! I think of how much money they are wasting on mailing those letters to me x how many others and it really pisses me off! I was tempted to run something on my blog for OK, but I think from now on I’ll just stick to making personal donations.
LMAO- I have literally torn up a letter from FA about 5 minutes ago.
I donated $100 through book sales 2 years ago and have been battered ever since. Even after moving home they have tracked down my new address and I too get 2 or 3 requests per week.
I’m fed up to the back teeth with them and will never donate again.
I think it’s multi-factorial.
There is the element of the type of content – pulling in the reader with emotion and personal stories, standard red top stuff.
But there’s also the fact that Facebook gives more exposure to different types of postings – a cartoon will be seen by far more people than the link to a post (that’s why people have now started including a link as the first comment because straight textual updates get distributed by Facebook the most).
There’s the escapism factor.
There’s the very narrow expectation people have about what is acceptable to go on your page (“You’re a life coach and you should *only* talk about life coaching, that’s what I signed up for”, seems to be the expectation)
And on. It’s complex.
I actually had people *unlike* my page when I did something similar to your post. And I’ve seen just today a very popular page get absolutely lambasted by sharing something that was slightly off-topic.
And yet when I asked (set up automatically in advance) a silly, trite question asking about people’s footwear which went out about an hour after the Boston bombing, no-one said a word.
Complex.
Weird and complex, a bit like folk ;-)
Tim,
Rob is right. If you mentioned one person you probably would have had a better response. Check out this Indigogo campaign to help the Athiest lady who made Wolf Blitzer uncomfortably laugh.
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/atheists-unite
To quote Mother Teresa, “If I look at the mass I will never act,” and Joseph Stalin, “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.”
There are many other factors too.
Your offer was great however it didn’t have the emotional impact of a funny cartoon or a political quote with irrational logic slamming the right/left (choose your enemy).
I know he is Matt, I just never thought and didn’t have a story to focus on anyway.
Maybe if I’d focused on the teacher who threw her body on top of some kids to stop them being crushed to death I’d have had more luck.
I’m not sure, but just wanted to say I heard you. Lately I’ve been inundated with requests for money, from relative graduates whom I’ve never met to all kinds of causes and disasters I’d like to throw my two cents into, but no current means to do any of it. Maybe there is some element of overload, under-funds, sheer desire to get away from everything…but a click and a share costs nothing but a second.
I think most of us have Julie, that’s the thing with the Internet, it’s easy to throw out a request for help.
The point of facebook for most people is escapism. We are bombarded 24/7 with news, gossip, our friends’ awful day/week/year and so on – fb allows us to be frivolous and flippant and share cute kitty pictures…to get away from the bad stuff. I have to confess to ‘unfriending’ or hiding people who constantly post sad pictures of dogs in Thailand, tortured animals, appeals to repost political statements about Muslims and anything that ends in ‘I bet you won’t repost this’ or ‘share if you agree’…. I want to start my day in a positive frame of mind and youtube clips about Ninja kittens make me happy.
I think what works well on facebook are posts about heroic deeds – firemen rescuing children or pets, random acts of kindness and proof of man’s humanity towards man. If these posts are linked to a charity site of your choosing people can donate if they wish to. I donated to the First Integrated Prom that Tim shared a few months ago – quite possibly a number of his fans did when they read the story. People like to contribute – it just has to hit the spot.
I don’t think there is a point of Facebook.
That maybe your point, but for others it’s to promote a business or keep updated with friends, or read news, or as in my wifes case, keep updated on Doberman rescue.
Other people use it as a political platform, or to tell jokes, or spread information support good causes.
But you’re right, it sure has to hit the spot.
Sadly, I think I agree with you fully. I don’t think that social media works anymore for sharing blog posts. It’s time to look for other ways or revisit previous ways that worked.
I think it still works for the A listers, but the amount of blogs now is overwhelming so the information gets diluted.
I agree with both of you. It’s my experience that social networking doesn’t work well for anyone but A listers and those who post “lightweight” images, videos, slogans and quotes. One can always sex it up and post cat picture or two but I won’t go there ever.
Maybe I’m just peeved because social networking doesn’t work well for me. :( However, what you said about desensitization, Tim and also what Kristin say about altering our values is what I think I’m witnessing and that’s sad.
The path Sandra has taken is to publish her monthly favorite articles mostly on personal development), books, and resources plus a mini-monthly review. I think she’s onto something.
I think part of the answer is that people can relate to individual stories much better than to massive anonymous numbers. This is a pretty widely understood phenomenon, which I’m sure you’ll have come across yourself. It’s why charity adverts on TV (at least in the UK) focus on telling the stories of particular individuals.
If your post had relayed the tale of Jonny X, who had lost his house, teddy bear and little sister, your post may well have generated much more interest, because people can relate to Jonny on an emotional level.
Sometimes I wish people behaved more rationally/logically. But the fact is that we’re still very much emotionally-driven creatures who react best to personal stories.
Ywh, and I know that Rob, it’s just that I didn’t know any individual stories.
Maybe I should have dug around until I found a cat being rescued from some rubble by a bare chested fireman with a 6 pack ;-)
Ooooh, thanks for the image!
Yes, it is a weird place, indeed. I just turned 50 and the changes to human culture I have witnessed in my half-century are disconcerting, to say the least. Most of these changes are probably caused by the “opportunities” we have gleaned from the world-wide web. I am not sure the internet is desensitizing us as much as it is altering our values to a very distressing degree. I worry for our future generations.
Kristin, curmudgeonette
Ahh, a fellow curmudgeon, welcome!
I feel your pain Tim. Often I find that my best and most serious posts seem to go unnoticed. I recently shared an important post of Seth Godin’s on Facebook and got little or no response. I was flabbergasted. A silly joke may get hundreds of responses. I contacted Seth and he said he saw little traction as well and was very disappointed. It seems people don’t want to deal with serious issues.
Dan Garner
Yeh, maybe we’re all just looking to escape. I can understand that, even if it’s a tad disheartening.