Of likes, loves & comments in social media!

TS Haokip
Social media today is converted to a platform of not just sharing and engaging creatives but of garnering likes, comments and shares. It is only natural that people will appreciate their post being iked, loved and shared. To be honest, I for one expect atleast 35 likes, which is 5% of my friend list to my every posts. I dislike the feeling and would remind myself everytime that It is not the likes and comments which should decide the quality of my post. These are just user reach. The more reach, the more reactions.
The issue when observed at the macro level reveals a much grimmer picture. Many will go to any extent to grab people's attention in their pursuit to garner more likes and shares. If posting fake and cheap publicity posts are not enough, people would consistently stick to controversial post and comments just to grab more attention.
Every social media user can generate, create and share anything and as such are all media person. The same way we have issues of paid media and cheap publicity news just for the sake of TRPs, we too have social media pages, groups and users indulging in posting all sorts of creatives notwithstanding any effort to establish the ethical, genuineness, authenticity and relevance as long as it makes them viral. Desperate users going even to the extent of putting their life in danger for just a selfie to be posted in social media explains how grave a situation can be if these hype on likes and comments and shares are not moderated.
Few months back, there was an image of just an egg going viral in Instagram. It has become the most liked picture on the internet. If that was not enough, we have an image of a banana duck-taped on a wall going viral again recently. The said banana was reported bought in huge sum from an art gallery. These instances taught us the invaluable fact that all that is viral need not be awesome always. The reverse is equally true. It would however be too selfish on our part to think of love,likes and shares to be removed in its totality just for the reason that people gave over-importance to it. There certainly are genuine talents, which deserved to go viral. The Renu Mondals are talents, social media's likes and shares found. It would be injustice to them if the channel which can promulgate their hidden talents to the world is questioned in as much as we would wished hate, fake and controversial videos be condemned. It is therefore important that users differentiate what is truely worth sharing and liking and what is not. And most importantly, one should not judge a social media post just by the number of likes and comments alone always.
The writer is author of Hilly Dreams- the story of Aboi