I had no desire to be part of a clique as a child. Fortunately, my natural orientation is to be a little lonely.

Fast forward several decades, I am now using a number of new and different forms of interaction and communication techniques, one of which is Facebook. He wasn’t really interested in using it. But social media gurus have been saying in recent years that you should incorporate it into your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy for your business. “Google is changing the SERP algorithm of its search engine to reward you for the number of likes and comments you receive on pages and posts.” OK so. And there it began, exposing my thoughts and feelings to many acquaintances and a handful of very close friends and loved ones. The latter are very sweet. If they go on Facebook and come across something of mine, they always “like” it and make some kind of comment.

Last weekend, I blurted out to my dear little brother while talking to him on the phone. It is that I feel a little hurt and sad because almost none of my “friends” on Facebook like or comment on anything I posted. Now, we are not talking about a photo I took of a noodle on a fork! It could be a new food recipe I developed, an e-book I just published, a controversial opinion on some political issue, or even something lighthearted like a beautiful sunset that I captured in a photograph at the end of the day we had the Blizzard. of 2013.

Michael helped me see that it doesn’t matter at all in the scheme of things. It doesn’t change my inherent worth or anyone else’s. It was at this point that I realized that I expected and wanted public acceptance and support for myself and my work. Not only is it unnecessary, it prepares you. You end up worrying about their reaction. Will they pay attention to me or will they ignore me? Will they accept or reject me and / or what I have to say? This is not that different from seeking one-click acceptance. It is not the healthiest and most useful goal you can have. What’s also interesting is that I realized this pretty quickly and on my own at the age of 12. And it took me a long time to realize it, and only with the help of my brother, several decades later.

I’m not trying to say that all Facebook activity is about clicks. I know that Facebook can be used for many good things. Getting support for important issues and working together to solve a problem or achieve a common goal are examples of this. I think it all comes down to realizing that any means of interaction or communication can be potentially tricky. Just being aware of this and keeping an eye on it can help you nip it in the bud.