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Just a number

Likes and follows is just a number on social media posts. What will happen if their are no such buttons to push or do we actually need them? Ask the question to different people and you will get just as much different answers.

In the beginning

During the early years of the Internet I cannot remember that there was many ways to track your website performance other than webpage counters. There were guestbooks and forums though. The Internet evolved over the years with social media changing the way the Internet was.

Social media started it all

With social media came like and follow buttons – also comments. All of these play an important role in how popular your site or social media page is. There are somewhat of a prestige attached to the numbers. The more likes and follows you have – the more popular you are. Many influencers chase the numbers and they get upset when the numbers go down. It can get out of control when your popularity clashed with the numbers and you do not make as much money as your rivals.

A YouTuber took offence and felt let down when her numbers collided. She ended up shooting and injured 3 people before ending her own life.

Social media made it easy to like articles, images and video’s, comment and follow. It is kind of normal to do so. When Instagram said they were going to discontinue the like button, people became very upset.

Likes and follows is just a number

Is that really so? Will the Internet be the same if we cannot like, follow and comment? Does it matter?

My opinion

I have 2 websites Let’s make tea and Amandaskrywer. Only recently did I made it available to like, follow and comment and I find it helpful. I constantly try to improve my website statistics so with these and Google analytics it is possible to track the performance of the websites. It helps me to determine where things can be improved. To me the numbers has nothing to do with me as a person and I can distance myself from them. They are however important to the growth of my websites. The numbers of others do not bother me.