Like for likes, but comments are better (an idea for 2025)
As we flee the deadly twiX and seek smarter, kinder places to share our stuff, can we rebuild the currency of 'likes?'... and 'comment' freely like no-one is judging?
If talk is cheap, then likes are…
While we might school young people to not obsess about quantity in social media ‘engagement’ (likes and the like), even ancient remote workers whose community is mostly virtual can get a bit obsessed with numbers (AKA me).
A lonely post sits un-noticed. Is it my online personal hygiene, or can I blame an algorithm?
Likes are cheap though still welcome. But a thoughtful comment is worth… 20 low calory likes?
Repping replies
My policy is to reply to every comment - perhaps because I am a country boy at heart and we greet everyone that we pass on the road, which freaks out London people. Good.
If I don’t reply to a comment it is because…. [awkward 10 second pause with the sound of your heart beating in your ears]… my silence speaks volumes.
I try to comment on things that I read too. Not just saying ‘whadabout gender?’ or ‘whadabout politics?’
I admit that during the heady days of the slightly renegade Twitter account that we ran for my old DFID research team (until gently warned of tightening rules), the routine of crafting and putting out a slightly bonkers Friday thread and sitting back to see the comments and count the likes was a dopamine rush. Especially during Covid lockdown.
The limitations of Twitter (character counts, and the high risk of a premature fat finger fumble publish) made it even more addictive. If only my spelling had been better I’d be nearly proud….
On Substack my obsessive behaviour is posting and then checking audience data…. no other bar chart has ever been so compelling. I can’t break the habit.
An idea for 2025: Quality likes and commit to comments (a futurist simulacra of the least bad parts of olde worlde Twitter)
Why not give yourself a daily budget of ten gold ‘engagement tokens’ (‘likes’ plus whatever else you use - LinkedIn light bulbs and Insta efflugis) and spend them thoughtfully and liberally on well crafted content (things that people have put effort into)?
So, go ahead and spray 100 cheap ‘likes’ on all those ‘I’m pleased to me-nounce’ posts and photos of glamourous people at big conferences (…sour grapes), but spend a daily ‘quality ten’ on things that people have put a bit of crafting effort into. Output. Product. Effort. Thinking.
Better still, engage and comment!
Farewell 2024….
It’s been an uncertain, but energetic and rollercoaster year. I’ve worked on and in new places, but also returned to old haunts. We’ve lost loved ones, and gained some too.
A friend asked what piece of ‘work’ I have most proud of this year, and (honestly) I immediately thought of this Instagram video.
My work is done here…..
Works best with sound on. Cheap likes welcome. Comments even better. Happy 2025.
That Mishti is getting cuter. I think I am giving up on twitter and writing in general. What a crap year it has been.
I try to comment on friends' post - partly just to engage, but also to help with algorithm. Liking and especially commenting helps generate attention algorithmically (I think).
I've moved over to bluesky which I think is a worthy successor for twitter. It's weak in some areas, but mostly, I'm liking it and am slowly finding more engagement. It's got a nicer and more substantive culture than twitter. I recommend it - and would really like to see more international develoment types on it.