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I write weekly on tactics and insights on cultivating authentic relationships that matter to your business, career, and life.
If you were to open up your social media feed of choice, your eyes will be drawn to two things. By the end of this post, I hope you’ll spend more time paying attention to one.
The first thing we look for is what our favorite friends, families, and fools have shared. Maybe it’s a big life or career update. Maybe it’s a picture from a recent trip.
Maybe it’s a deep spark of inspiration that came to them while they were in the shower1. That’s useful signal for you to provide a message of support or consolation, a helpful resource, or your response to “Do fish take baths?”
The architects of LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, etc have not stopped there - and that’s where it goes off the rails a bit.
They realized that the reactions could be captured on platform, and can help spur further engagement and posting. So instead of picking up the phone, we’re now conditioned to type into a textbox or click the Like button.
Putting aside the negative loop that is created there - what matters for us is our desire to connect with them is bucketed with everyone else - 5 likes becomes 6.
The original poster sees “8 comments” instead of “No, fish can’t take baths, but showers are a different story” - which might be nearly invisible.