What If Nobody “Liked” You.

I read a meme that said “What if we start ignoring celebrities. Like when they post a pic on Instagram they get like 13 Likes.”

I thought, what if we started ignoring everybody? Afterall, isn’t the main reason why we share things on social media is because we believe someone will Like it?

The Like button saved Facebook. Can you remember when there was no Like button on Facebook and you could only comment? I barely remember, but what I do remember is Facebook feeling boring.

I’ve been on Facebook since 2008 (as far as I can remember). Amongst my thousand-something friends, I’ve seen certain posts are more likely to get over 100 Likes. First, pictures are more likely to get Liked than word posts.

Photos of children, marriage, and maternity have received the highest Likes on my Facebook. The most Likes I’ve seen on a single post was a maternity photoshoot that received over 600 Likes. The only word post that I’ve seen get over 100 Likes are usually birthday posts.

I can remember every post I made that got over 100 Likes and they all were photos. The first one was when I graduated from college. Second, my Army enlistment. Third, my wedding, and lastly my first published fiction novel.

I never received over 100 Likes for a worded post. Probably because I usually post opinions that are contrary to popular beliefs or just a random thought.

What if you posted your most significant moment and received 10 or less Likes? If you posted your college graduation photo and got 10 Likes out of 1,000 friends would you think that people don’t like you anymore, or that people are jealous and don’t want you to know they saw your photo?

I realize that the days before social media, if you were a quiet person then people would tell you to come out of your shell. But, in the days of social media a lot of people are quiet until they have something significant to post or only post things that they know people will Like. I have a Black friend who makes a lot of post supporting Conservatism, Donald Trump, and attacking all things Liberal.

He doesn’t mind posting it because his posts usually averages 30 to 50 Likes and receives a lot of supporting and opposing comments. Even negative reactions are a reaction. So people will continue to post things that most of their Facebook friends won’t agree on as long as it continues to gain reactions even if those reactions are negative. This Facebook friend has the same people responding with their opposing views on nearly all of his posts. But he also gets more than enough positive reactions to validate his viewpoints.

I guarantee that if he started to get no more than 10 Likes on his posts and 0 comments then he would start to think twice about what he post because he would start to doubt himself.

But most people don’t want to put themselves out there until they’re confident that they’ll receive Likes. Likes on a photo validate that you’re attractive. Likes validate that your opinion is correct. Likes simply validate that people like you.

I know a woman on Facebook who asked “Why is no one telling me Happy Birthday.”

Isn’t that interesting. People are more concerned about being told happy birthday on Facebook than people calling them or texting them happy birthday. A bunch of happy birthday messages on Facebook will make someone happier on their birthday than spending time with real friends and family.

I didn’t get any birthday messages on social media on my birthday. Well, the few I did get was only because my wife told me happy birthday on her page. But, I didn’t get any birthday comments on my timeline when Facebook notifies people of who’s birthday it is.

I didn’t get a happy birthday in my high school group chat. Even though my friend, who’s birthday is the day after mine got a few happy birthday messages in the group. That pretty much told me that my classmates don’t rock with me like that.

I’m not going to act like not getting any birthday messages on Facebook didn’t bother me a bit. But I turned 30. As a 30 year old man, I got over that real quick and appreciated all the people in my real life who acknowledged my birthday.

In conclusion of this article, I’m minimizing my posts on Facebook. I already don’t get many Likes anyway. And the people who really care about what I have to say will have to read my articles on my blog. I value my opinion and I’m not going to continue posting my opinion on Facebook where people can just read and continue scrolling.

Is it the minimum of Likes the reason why I’m cutting back on posts? Yes, if people don’t Like or comment on my posts then there is no way of knowing who viewed it. Or if they viewed it, did they get anything out of it? I can see how many people viewed my blog and how many people viewed my posts even if they don’t Like or comment on it. Therefore, my opinion has value whether you like me or not.