Every time I scroll through my social media feed and see someone proudly proclaiming a new follower milestone – whether it’s 1,000, 10,000 or even 100,000 – a little part of me cringes.
I understand the platforms themselves encourage this, popping up those cheerful notifications like, "You’ve reached 5,000 followers! Share your achievement!" But the act of actually posting it? To me, it feels incredibly, almost painfully, desperate.
Let me paint a different picture. Imagine a child at school, standing proudly in the playground, doing cartwheels and shouting, "Woohoo! I have five friends!" It sounds absurd, doesn't it? As if the quantity of friends is the pinnacle of their social success. We’d likely chuckle, then wonder if they truly understand what friendship means. It’s not about the number; it’s about the depth, the shared laughter, the secrets whispered, the unwavering support during tough times. It's about genuine connection.
Now, flip that back to an adult's social media. When you celebrate hitting 5,000 or 50,000 followers, how many of those individuals have you actually met? How many know your deepest thoughts, your fears, your dreams? How many, quite frankly, give a damn about you as a person, and not just your curated aesthetic, your witty quips, or yes, your perfectly posed duck-lipped, selfie-necked, ass-presenting thirst-trap pictures?
The vast majority are digital spectators, looky-loos passing through your curated feed. To equate this transient attention with genuine influence or connection feels deeply misguided.
For instance, our boss has been in media for 20 years. He very publicly says he has no interest in social media. (It's literally written in his Instagram bio.) I asked him if he knows how many Twitter followers he has. He has no idea. I asked how many Instagram followers he has. He has no idea.
By comparison, I've essentially been confronted by people when I unfollow them because I either don't find their content interesting or, truthfully, don't even remember why I followed them in the first place. Sometimes within minutes I'll get an unsolicited DM with something snarky like, "You unfollowed? OK then." And then I'm either unfollowed in return or blocked -- or both; like it's supposed to be that person getting the last word to "show me." Bitch, I'm not even that petty.
It's sad to me that people pay such close attention not only to numbers going up or down, but subscribe to notifications when people come and go from their follower list. Honestly, I didn't even know that was a thing. I had no idea there's a way to be told when someone unfollows or unfriends you. Back to that earlier point: is that really going to ruin my day that two people left my page? Not really. Then again, I have a life!
This isn't just a personal pet peeve; it extends to the professional realm, too.
I see businesses, big and small, celebrating their follower counts with equal fervor. "We hit 20,000 followers!" they exclaim, often with digital confetti and celebratory GIFs. (Yes, our Buff Boy accounts get those nudges from Meta and Twitter all the time, and while it's a nice update to get, it's not our claim to fame.)
Here’s the cold, hard truth: followers don’t equal sales, and sales are the lifeblood of any business. If you had $100,000 in sales this quarter, that’s an achievement worth popping champagne for. That signifies real value delivered, real customer problems solved, real revenue generated.
If your 100,000 followers are simply a crowd of looky-loos who consume your free content, engage with your posts occasionally, but never open their wallets, then what exactly are you celebrating? It's not a success story; it's an audience of non-customers. Unless the social media platform is paying you substantial sums for traffic (which, for most people and businesses, boils down to pennies, if anything -- though, full disclosure: both Buff Boy and Happy Bulge Swim Co. are paid substantial amounts of money with Meta's content monetization programs), a massive following without corresponding conversions is just… noise. It’s a vanity metric that inflates ego more than it impacts the bottom line.
So, why do people do it? Why do people feel compelled to share these digital laurels?
I suspect it stems from a deep-seated human need for validation, to feel seen and important in an increasingly crowded digital landscape. In a world obsessed with quantifiable success, follower counts offer an easy, albeit hollow, metric. It’s a way of saying, "Look at me! I matter! I have an audience!" But in its very public proclamation, it often backfires, revealing less about influence and more about an underlying need for external affirmation.
It’s like shouting into the void, hoping the echo confirms your existence. And that, to me, is precisely why it feels so desperate. It’s a public performance for attention, rather than a quiet confidence in one’s true value or impact. It prioritizes the superficial metric over the meaningful reality.
Instead of fixating on these hollow numbers, I believe people should shift focus to what truly matters. As individuals, celebrate the genuine, profound connections forged – the friends who answer your call at 3 a.m., the family who supports you unconditionally, the mentor who guides you, the single insightful comment that sparks a new thought. Celebrate personal growth, meaningful conversations, the joy of creating something impactful, or the quiet satisfaction of knowing you’ve made a difference in just one person's life. These are the true markers of a rich and fulfilling existence.
For businesses, the metrics worth celebrating are equally tangible: consistent sales growth, glowing customer testimonials that speak to real value, high customer retention rates, successful product launches or the positive impact your service has on your clients' lives. These are the indicators of health, growth and genuine success. They represent value exchanged, trust earned and problems solved, not just eyeballs gathered.
There are even products that businesses buy and display to showcase in real time their social media follower count. (Imagine walking into a store and seeing a tally board like it's a telethon, announcing they have 4,367 Facebook followers. Like, who the fuck cares? Is your product good? That's what I want to know.)
Ultimately, I find the celebration of follower counts to be a symptom of a broader societal obsession with superficial metrics. It encourages us to chase breadth over depth, quantity over quality, and fleeting attention over lasting impact.
Stop cheering for mere looky-loos and start valuing what truly counts. Celebrate genuine connection, real engagement and tangible achievements, both in your personal life and in your professional endeavors. Because in the grand scheme of things, 50,000 digital spectators means very little next to one loyal friend, one delighted customer, or one truly meaningful interaction.