You find someone interesting on Instagram (or Tinder/happn/Bumble if they left their IG handle there), though their profile is restricted. You add that person, which accepts you, sometimes after two or three months. You leave a private message to that person, thanking it for accepting you as a follower, and asking if it wants to talk. Then, silence. Or worse yet, exchanges a few phrases and then ghosts you out of nowhere, without explanation or if you didn’t said anything rude.
I mean, no one owes anyone anything in a situation like that, of course, but why bother opening a pathway in the first place, instead of just refusing? And if you find that other not really interesting after some conversation, though not really creepy or weird or over-the-top, why not be polite and say “look, this is not going to work, I don’t want to talk to you anymore” or “this thing you said is a red flag for me, bye, take care”?
What bothers me is like, don’t we talk anymore like normal people are supposed to? Have personal connections become so disposable like that? Or am I just freaking out and perhaps just need to find out somewhere in the real world where I could bond more easily with real people?
That’s because those are Branding places. They’re places to sell your Brand. It’s why business profiles are interchangeable with personal profiles, it’s about branding.
Branding isn’t just for corporate products anymore, it’s for everyone, apparently.
It’s the whole “influencer’s real lives are a lot less glamorous than their Insta leads you to believe,” which is totally true, most of the clothes are rented and they get to stay maybe 24 hours in a nice place just for a photo shoot, then they’re sent back to their crappy apartment.
Asmongold is a gross dumb piece of shit but openly living in filth is at least being honest about how most of these influencers actually live.
It’s all smoke and mirrors for branding. Real people with real lives don’t spend their time managing their “brand” anywhere, whether it’s Instagram or LinkedIn because, by definition, we have real lives and real connections with real people already.