On Fame and Popularity - A Confession

"Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, and riches take wings. Only one thing endures and that is Character."

Photo taken by Abyz Mamangon

Maybe, we might have all been there. There was once a time in our lives, when the number of likes defined the purpose of our contents. 

Here’s my story.

When I was just starting, I would frequently check on my notifications to see how my NUMBERS are doing. Yes, the number of likes, comments and shares I get from each post. I would end up constantly refreshing my feed, reading comments, and replying to them one by one to get more engagements. The more you participate, the higher the probability that people would notice you and the higher the chance that the post would resurface on people’s feed.

I did not notice it at first but it became one of my priorities. I would share my posts to a lot of groups to further increase my network. And then, the followers began pouring in. Suddenly, collaboration offers would pop in my inbox. In those times, I felt that I was beginning to get noticed. So I tried to keep up, I tried to keep the ball rolling, to keep the momentum running. I see to it that I post a new content almost every other day, if not every week. And this mania went on for months.

Traveling gradually turned into a content-producing activity, a photo factory. The more pictures I take, the more I have to share. So instead of enjoying the vacation, it would end up becoming a photoshoot. Waking up early, no longer meant watching the sunrise and feel its warmth on your skin. Waking up early, now meant getting pictures with no photobombers in it. Choice of food was not based on its taste anymore, but on the manner it was served and on how appealing it would look on photos. You say to yourself, once I hit this number, maybe I’d stop looking. Maybe I would get contented. But needless to say, it was all just a maybe. That growing likes was addicting, and it will consume you.

And then one day, when you think you are doing well, complacent with your previous posts getting viral, suddenly people stopped noticing you. Even if you have posted the nicest photos you spent hours to edit and captioned with the catchiest phrases, it did not quite made it to the top list. Questions would circle around your head on why they did not like it. Was it the arrangement of the photos? Did I post it on a wrong timeframe? Was the caption not good enough? Was I not good enough? And then it hits you. You cannot be in that pedestal all the time.

We made an alternate world through social media – carefully curated feed, perfectly edited photos, and well-thought captions. These are some of the fantasies we create in order to leave a mark to people by letting them think that these are our reality. But you soon realize that the mark won’t last. That version of reality soon became a fragment of the online world that was quickly overturned by a newer, more appealing post.

For a moment, you have let these numbers defined your worth. Social media acceptance became an obsession. Until that one moment that changed my perception.

I was browsing thru my friend’s page when I begin to notice something. Her contents are one of the best I’ve seen but the figures did not match the quality. Her reach did not justify the value of what she was creating. But still, she continued on posting and did not seem to get discouraged based on the numbers. That’s when I realized that her purpose is not to get viral, but to just simply create and share what she loves and does best. She was not there for fame or popularity. She was there to inspire people. And that my friends was my eye opener.

From constantly being on the phone for new notifications, I would now post or share, and leave it for people to see. Was it performing well? I don’t know for sure. Is it getting a lot of clicks? Maybe, or maybe not. The point is, I have shared what I think would help people and that was enough. The content was intended for them, and not for my own ego.

I became more productive with the lesser time online. Engagements meant actual conversations. Reactions were no longer buttons but facial expressions. Likes no longer meant social approval.

It was a journey getting over it and coming to terms with it. And I think, I am still on my way. But it was definitely not too late. Live your life the way you would actually have it, and not in a way you wanted other people to perceive. The numbers no longer matter, as long as someone out there has been touched by what I create, that is already pretty much something.