Popularity, is it worth it?

One of the biggest problems I have with social media web sites like Twitter is “False Followers”. What are they, you ask? Well, they are people who follow you on Twitter one day and then unfollow you the next.The only reason they followed you in the first place was to try and gain more followers for themselves. People think that the more followers they have on Twitter or any social website, the more popular they are. So the idea is, you follow people in the hope they will reciprocate by following you back, when they do, you start to systematically unfollow as many as possible, this makes it look as though you have many followers, but you, yourself are only following a select few. Hence you look and feel more popular then you really are!

This could also be referred to as "dipping", because some people follow those suggested by Twitter in emails, then unfollow or "dip out" within the next day or two. But this is a false conception, because if you were truly popular you would not have to stoop so low as to solicit followers, they would just follow you on their own accord because they had an interest in you. If you have to search through a site, following random people thinking they will return the favor or follow the ones suggested by Twitter emails, you are not popular!

Another thing that really bothers me is when “Christian” people or “Christian” artists engage in this type of practice, because I think being a “false” anything is going against Christ’s teachings. When you see that a "Christian" band has followed you, you might get all excited thinking to yourself “oh here is a cool band and they’re following me! They must like me!”  You feel so honored that they would want to follow you and you weren’t even following them first, so you choose to follow them back, you might even decide to give their music a listen and begin to like it, even tweet about it. Then the next time you check into Twitter, you discover they have gone and unfollwed you, now you feel so dishonored! The lying, cheating fakes! You would expect this type of behavior from secular groups, but not from people calling themselves Christian! How could someone who claims to be a Christian do this to you? It seems so dishonest! So instead of making someone more popular, it only gets them labeled among the deceivers!

What if you have been tweeting about them, telling the world how great their music is? You could always just stop giving them the honor of your tweets and forget about them or you can unfollow them back! I personally hold to the statute of "you follow me, I follow you, you unfollow me, I unfollow you!" I always unfollow people when they unfollow me, since I did not follow them first, because I had never heard of them or just wasn’t interested enough. If they followed me only to unfollow me, then they don't deserve my attention anyway! In the end they loose a follower instead of gaining more! But if you had followed them first and they followed you back, then unfollowed you, I guess then you’d have to decide if you are really offended or not. In all honesty, there may be times when you want to unfollow people or even block them anyway, because their tweets might make you uncomfortable.

An even more annoying aspect of this practice, is when they have the nerve to send you a direct message thanking you for the follow and could you please check out their Facebook page or their music on YouTube or some place. To do this knowing that they will unfollow you soon, is just heartless!

When Jesus walked through the streets and along the shore inviting those around him to “follow me”, He wasn’t doing it to be popular, He had something He had come to share, but He too had “false” followers. Those who just weren’t that interested in Him or what He was offering them, but were more concerned with being a part of the crowd and what they could gain from doing so, which in most cases meant at the very least, a free meal! They were “fans” of Jesus not true followers, when the going got tough they got going, they deserted Christ. But Christ didn’t give up; He kept on calling everyone to follow Him, just as He calls us today. Jesus knew who the true followers were then and He knows who is sincere even now for He knows our hearts.

People today are so insecure, that they will do anything to gain popularity or what they think is popularity and the internet provides a vast web of possibilities and is so easily abused. People can readily conjure up new identities or steal the identities of others, to satisfy their needs. I personally would rather not be popular for the sake of popularity, but have “followers” that are interested in what I have to share, so if I only have a few, that is fine with me! The main reason I’m on Twitter in the first place is to show a little love to the artists I love, so I’m bummed when they don’t show a little love back!