And How—The Bigger the Better!
In the modern I‑♥‑quantity mindset, size matters.
Yessiree, Bob!
Gimme an L!
Gimme an O!
Gimme a T!
Gimme an S!
Gimme LOTS LOTS LOTS!
In the Digital Age, the implication is that I must be okay if I have lots of whatever; the subliminal message—my worth depends on it.
Social Net Worth
Lots of Facebook friends, LinkedIn connections, Twitter followers (even if you have to buy them), lots of tweets and likes and shares. And then there’s Klout*.
Klout is about your clout. It’s a site that helps you ‘measure your online impact’. The bigger your Klout score, the more influential you are. According to Klout, anyway. Note: It takes little for a Klout score to slip, but it takes lots to boost it. This entails a lot of hard work to keep up with the Joneses … and Trumps and Biebers and Gagas.
Social media algorithms are voracious, and surpassing others is the next big thing (although, where weight is concerned, big is not really phat. So say the image-makers).
All of this points to going to great lengths to become widespread. But there’s not much depth there. There’s nothing said about depth. And yet …
Depth is where you’ll find your best work in progress: You.
In the depths is where you’ll find your real worth. From there, you’ll come back up and do your best work in progress. The kind that reflects the measure of the person you’re becoming, and makes you bigger and better—not necessarily bigger and better than others, but than the self you were. Naturally. It’s this kind of work that needs to become widespread to help others find their own best WIP-self.
Sharing is Caring
We learned it when we were little, but it’s a tad uglified in this information age. Sharing has become inorganic.
I myself am guilty of some opportunistic sharing, and I do like to see my follower numbers growing! It’s okay, I’m unashamedly human. And realistic. As an author, I need to grow my brand, and growth and exposure lead to book sales. As a human, I will occasionally lapse into the numbers game. But my brand growth will never be at the expense of quality writing. Ever.
Once you’ve started living and writing the deep life, there’s no going back to a largely quantitative existence with its shallow stories and soulless characters.
So, yeah, size does matter: Depth matters.
*Klout is now kaput. Stay tuned for a replacement meta social Web tool to quantify your (digital) importance.
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Thank you Paula, Wonderful article and very true. I enjoy my forays into Tweet world, etc and they are useful tools so long as they are not at the expense of what we came to do.
My size expands and so does my depth thanks to input from those I choose to sit up and listen to. They stand out above the constant chatter.
Looking forward to more, Steve C
More power to you, Steve, for not being led astray by those social media forces! Once you’ve done your deep work, though, you can’t go back and get lost in that superficial stuff without paying a price!
Many thanks for taking the time to read, for your praise and your astute comments.