Are you tired of constantly hearing the phrase, "Please like and subscribe"? Just as a laptop should not be set directly on the lap, or the federal reserve is not federal, social media is not social, and is really just self-marketing. And we know that the main reason it's essentially given away freely, is that the users of it, as evident by the fact that you often have to sign into it, and to use a marketing zombie apocalypse word be supposed "consumers" of it, are its product.
Getting traffic for content online, is not determined by its quality, and certainly not its depth, but by, well... frankly... its either overtly or covert selling of sex, and ability for marketing appeal. 9 out of 10 times content will have more high traffic if its creator is a marketer first and a content creator second. If one seeks assistance in getting more traffic on their content, the consistent thing "They Live" marketing shallows will tell them is they need to put more time into it. So someone's life essentially must become their Tube-Face-Insta-Tock. They will also tell you to constantly remind your audience to engage with and follow your stuff. Why? So that it has more supposed marketability.
In an age headed toward Cyberpunk where algorithms eagerly monetize, quantify, and track every like, share, and subscription, craving our engagement does not recognize us as persons, but more as patterns. They reduce us to tendencies, habits, and click-through rates. Media platforms profit from our interactions - not just financially through data mining and ads, but by shaping public opinion and behavior. Liking and subscribing give them loads of data mining on your end and often also lead to an ever-expanding flood of content tailored to perceived interests. This feedback loop can result in overstimulation, distraction, and a kind of mental clutter. By resisting providing data to this impulse, we preserve the richness of ambiguity and reclaim the right to withhold stamping it with premature approval.
At its core, social media trains us in a moral shorthand: this is good, that is bad; this is follow-worthy, that is forgettable. We recommend the book The Anxious Generation on how toxic the “thumbs up” has become to young people when posting content online. And even the creators of it have come to regret it and the main reason it's still going is for data mining purposes. As we mature, we do not seek attention, and so are not bound by its loss. Likes also become an inaccurate proxy for judgment, making browsers think something is of higher quality because it may have more of them, even when often manipulatable by bot armies. We had a teacher who once said there's no reason to like anything. You can always go to it without having liked it or subscribed to it. Every time you do it, you micro help the creator but one could say you also micro hurt you. Constructive and proactive comments are better. Like in a university lecture hall, encouraging social interaction. So socials can be used more consciously and in that case, get people talking with one another and thus socializing.
Subscriptions also can create a funnel leading to lack of new information - a tethering of the self to a stream of content that assumes our identity is stable, our interests fixed, our affinities monetizable. But the self is not static; it evolves, contradicts, questions. By not necessarily signaling constant interest, we give ourselves the chance to encounter ideas and creators on our own terms, rather than having them relentlessly served up by algorithms designed to keep us scrolling. To not subscribe is to honor fluidity, to remain open to surprise, to let the unknown visit uninvited, to step outside the rhythm of digital affirmation - to dwell, instead, in the uncertain space between reaction and reflection. In a world governed by immediacy, where content is validated not by its truth but by its traction, choosing not to engage becomes an act not merely of digital discipline, but of philosophical significance. Micro non participating sends a message, however small, that we are not just passive users but more conscious participants. As there is a quiet almost metaphysical rebellion in refusing to do so. Choosing not to engage, to decline, becomes less a data point and legible to the machine. There is a dignity in asserting that we are not merely consumers of information, but contemplative beings capable of existing outside the economy of constant feedback. While not really social media thrives on interaction, withholding those tiny digital gestures offers benefits that go beyond mere indifference. Fostering more authentic relationships with content, creating more digital autonomy, not allowing for complex experiences to be collapsed, and disrupting the machinery of algorithmic manipulation. It is an opportunity to practice discipline and inner clarity. In a world where endless opinions clamor for affirmation and identity is measured in metrics, the choice not to engage is an act of deliberate restraint - a refusal to let the outside world govern the inner life.
To tread lightly with giving them minimal data then, is not to disappear but to inhabit the digital world with inwardness. Virtue is not performed outwardly for applause, but cultivated inwardly through self-awareness and detachment from externals. Interactive media thrives on externals - reputation, validation, attention. It flatters the ego and inflames discursiveness. Meaning inability to focus on one thing for an extended period of time. This is why, in modernity, teaching a broccoli haired mop headed zit faced teenage dweeb who grew up staring at screens, hardly ever cracking a dense book, and instead only pecking at and heavily engaging with feeds, to meditate, is a difficult task. A philosopher in ancient Rome, before the empire destroyed itself there, once said all you need is a garden and a library. So if you use the online world as a research tool, in a very minimal fashion, that isn't about cynicism or disengagement - it's about being more mindful. It’s about consuming media without being consumed by it. In an environment that constantly asks for your approval, silence can be a form of freedom. Marcus Aurelius, surrounded by noise and that empire, reminded himself daily: “You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” In a digital node grid filled with clamor, the refusal to always engage becomes a way of walking silently through the marketplace, untouched by potential seductions.