Yes, it kind of is hypocritical to ask this on a social media platform, but what do you guys get out of it?
For social recognition. I would not post something on the internet if I didn’t expect someone else to see it.
Ego (in the broad, classic sense of our need to have self identity) and–increasingly–loneliness due to the husk of societal interactions many developed nations have let wither due to overwork, TV and privatization of public spaces.
I find like-minded people who don’t exist locally.
It’s not so much hypocritical of you to ask this question as it is you lack introspection.
People share things on social media to have interaction with other people, just like you did.
I never really used social media, since I was deterred by the contagious cancer that Instagram/TikTok/etc. because of their algos, corporations and bots are. Thanks to Lemmy being different, I thought it would be time to start understanding this.
When I share, I’m trying to pay it back. Some of you jabronies shared some cool things with me that I wouldn’t have seen otherwise. So the least I can do is try and do the same.
And if everyone did this, Lemmy would be flush with content.
“Why do people talk to other people”
idk I’m mostly here for the memes
I’m a performing artist. The stuff I share promotes causes I enjoy, keeps me relevant in an ever expanding scene, and helps get the word out for local shows and events.
Also a lot of shitposting. Mostly shitposting.
Its safer to say “FUCK [Insert Name of Politician]” online than irl…
well don’t post it on an account with your name attached, but you know what I mean…
Because social media will usually allow us to contact other people with similar niche interests, people that we’d be hard pressed to find IRL
The first word in social media is “social”. People typically post on social media because they want to socialize in one way or another.
Exactly. It’s the same as the answer to the question, “Why do you talk to people?”
Sometimes I ask myself the same question when I share things just to be faced with my own feelings of purposelessness. I mean, the purpose should be sharing it to other people that’d be interested in the content, but the Dead Internet Theory has long been far from a mere theory. The insane amounts of bots and spam led people to rely on some kind of “web of trust”, “web ring”, etc. It was needed because it’s never possible to know beforehand if a new profile will be spam/bot. And it seems good to find only what (should) fit our interests, following only people that you know whom produces good content. However, this behavior has a big downside, it rules out potentially interesting content from unknown people, which leads to the impossibility of hear and being heard, which leads to segregation, which leads to digital echo chambers. So, in such a web, friendless people, for example, inevitably fall into oblivion as they watch their content being filtered out because spam and bots needs to be filtered out.
“Look at this cool thing I found!” It can just be nice to share stuff with other people. There doesn’t need to be a deeper reason, it’s a function of humans being social animals.
This includes motivations such as wanting to discuss the thing with other people, to compare your own view with theirs, or simply to satisfy the need to yell at someone.
Edit: typo
Dopamine. Affirmation. Attention.
Although I don’t share that much on social media anymore.
Mostly, to bring my friends joy.
Sometimes, to see if anyone is willing to discuss the thing I’m sharing with me.
