In many ways, scrolling through social media is like wading across a knee-deep river. Neither activity possesses inherent danger, but your success (and/or enjoyment of the process) depends entirely on your ability to pay attention. While rivers have opposite banks which represent an end to their traversal, social media is — quite literally — an endless stream with no “riverbank” in sight.
If social media is a river, then content is the water that fills it. News, updates, images, quotes, captions, memes, all of the above. In the raging battle for our attention, the more content the better. In order to satisfy this limitless demand, social media turned its users into creators. What was once our gift — “anyone can say what they want!” — has now become our curse — “anyone can say what they want!” Or, to push this potamological metaphor one step further, it’s like we’re actively flooding the very same river we’re desperately trying to cross.
.png)
.png)
