Rarely will I ever call myself a purest. I mean, if you’ve been a reader of follower of my writing and work (thank you!) for any length of time, you will have probably noted that I am pretty damn liberal when it comes to sex and media. I firmly believe that we cannot move forward with a free and healthy sexual culture without out media also featuring sex in both believable and fantastic ways. We need to see our every day as well as out somedaymaybefantasy days come to life on our screens. It will be the balance of realism and fun that brings us closer to understanding and reconciling our sexual selves.
However, that said, I am more wary when it comes to social media. We have all these people out there who have opinions or who set trends as “influencers.” Regardless of whether I personally believe in their messages or not, they have every right to try and reach their audience. And, as we are seeing, this happens more and more in social media. The more followers you’ve got, the more people tend to take you seriously. And again, that makes sense in theory. If you’ve earned the adulation of fans, then they should hear your thoughts. But what if you haven’t “earned” those fans? What if you bought your followers?
I really enjoy social media, but this is where I shake my head a bit. It just seems so disingenuous to pay for followers to your social media. Is this they wave of the future? Am I an old fuddy-duddy? Admittedly, I am well into this thing called middle-age. In my youth, I spent a shitload of time roaming the streets putting up posters for queer punk dance parties and literary events. That’s how we made our name. That’s how people got to know about us. It wasn’t though a click and pay to add thousands of followers. It was through building a reputation and a shitload of hard work.
Of course, this isn’t a new concept. Companies have been gathering and selling distribution lists for decades and this is just the latest version of the gambit. But there is a key factor that separates this new practice from the old. Buying a mailing or phone call list to sell or advertise your products still requires engagement. It requires phone calls or creating a flyer and then having it delivered. There is still engagement on some level.
On the other hand, pumping up your followers with a bunch of bought names changes the game significantly. People have become inherently lazy and just look to see how many followers you have as to whether they want to buy into whatever your message is—be that a product or an idea. Are people so gullible as to have been pulled into this kind of ridiculous messaging? Sadly, yes. And when it comes to sex, when it comes to the topic most dear to my heart, I find this disturbing. That somebody could be considered influential just because of their following numbers as opposed to the substance of their content is disturbing and could set back much of the progress we’ve made.
In a weird, roundabout way, I’ve felt this and it was odd. A few years back, I pissed off another sex blogger. This person was very angry with me. Because they were prone to making inflammatory statements, but monitored their social media for a while to ensure nothing negative was being said or shared. At some point, my name was brought up in one of their feeds and they responded “oh, he’s supposedly some big deal because he’s got a bunch of Twitter followers.”
Well, no, I am not a big deal, but I appreciate the following I do have (thanks again!) and the opportunities I’ve been given. But I have also applied the same poster-hanging mentality to my work and how it reaches people: I work really hard, I tell who I can, and word of mouth or fingers does the rest. Every one of my followers has come to me organically, I haven’t paid for social media followers.
And I never will.
This post has been sponsored by Maxiwand.
