Don't "serf" the internet!

Have you had your school talk to you about S.M.A.R.T goals? What does the "M" stand for? The "M" stands for "measurable" so that you can keep track of your progress as you reach your goal.

In most social media, they give you a way to measure your "success" by likes, upvotes, shares, subscribers, etc. This gives you an easy way to gauge if what you're doing is good or bad. Obviously, our brain is attracted to higher numbers of those. We always want to seek approval, and the number of likes and upvotes are indicative of that.

The way you get these likes and upvotes always influences the site culture, and sometimes it can tap into your way of thinking.

Let's take Instagram for example. On Instagram, people usually like and comment on things, and sometimes, they may even follow. If you and your friend post any opinion, and your friend opinion has more likes, you may start to doubt your own opinion. You're not going to start thinking exactly like your friend, but you may start to think they're more correct, trustworthy, and reputable than you are. This makes the site culture of Instagram one that is very conforming and homogenous.

Reddit is a bit similar. If you post anything on Reddit, people can upvote or downvote it. Upvotes were intended for any posts that are meaningful or contribute to any discussion while downvotes were intended for any posts that are off-topic or irrelevant. In reality, upvotes and downvotes are just likes and dislikes. Any post with a lot of upvotes may end up on the front page, so in order to garner any approval or validation, you must post any idea that is popular or deemed as "correct" by the community. And sometimes you don't even have to post. Whatever you see on the front page will influence you.

People often joke about these sites being populated by NPCs because of the fact that they all think alike. For the same reason, people might also label them as "echo chambers."

Sometimes sites do not need a like/dislike to have manipulative effects. Although it is rather an imageboard, 4chan has developed a unique site culture. People often measure their success based on how active their thread is or how many replies they get, which pushes it to the top of the board. This encourages people to post things that will get a lot of replies. Now the easiest way to get people to reply to you is not discussing actually interesting stuff. Instead, you want to post things that are very controversial. You have to post something that would provoke a reaction from people and start an argument. That's why people often post inflammatory and offensive things on 4chan – to earn some (You)'s and have their post show up on the front page.

The internet was designed to be decentralized, and if one node failed, every other node could still communicate. However, most internet users are using the same five social media sites to communicate with each other. Instead of everyone owning their own domain or website, they rely on services that they have no control over and can be taken away at any time.

If everyone used the same platform to communicate, it would be very easy for a government or corporation to censor or shut down that platform. But the decentralized nature of the internet makes it much more difficult for your platform to be taken down.

You also don't actually own your profile on social media nor do you own the content that you put on them. Posting only through social media means you are limited to the site's design, functionality, and rules. Your creative freedoms and expression are stifled, and you are restricted only to the tools that the social media platforms provide to you. There is no control over your presentation, the information you share, how you brand yourself, and your online presence.

If it's free, then you are the product.