No Jackpot in Social Media — Except One

A dozen lonely people sit in a row of slots and pull the lever of the slot machine over and over again, mesmerized by the information on monitors.

The brain is eagerly waiting for this information.

The brain knows that the probability of getting three strawberries in a row is very low.

The brain keeps analyzing every combination and gives the order to get a new piece of information.

The owner of the brain pulls the lever again.

The brain’s main and default function is to collect information to save, maintain, and improve our lives. To help us survive. Here, in front of the slot machine, it malfunctions. It was supposed to stop this activity as useless. But the hope of getting the information that is beneficial keeps it vigilant.

Even while I understood this malfunction, my own brain was already setting me up for the same game.

“Ok, Kate, you are going to roll this slot machine first thing in the morning,” I said to myself, opening my eyes after a night of rest, and smirked.

The thought was funny at first. Expecting that someone would stop and read my yesterday’s Facebook post and think with me brought sorrow. I felt like Harlequin, the fool entertaining without being understood.

Over 100 people have seen my post. If one were to read, one would react to my thoughts in some way. The brain malfunctions in front of the screen with Facebook content in the same way it does in front of the slot machine monitor. Users scroll, waiting for a big win. But what information are they waiting for here? Definitely not something that will stop them and invite them to think.

Thinking people are not sitting with the Facebook app open and waiting for a good, deep thought to enrich them with the next scroll. They wait for emotions. Scroll. No luck this time. Scroll again. Maybe, with the next scroll. One more and one more… the timeline is endless, so is the scrolling.

I am not a fan of any timeline anymore. Not Facebook, not YouTube reels, not any other. But I still try my luck when I post results of my thinking and learning process, with the expectation that someone will be interested in discussing it. Where? On Facebook? And the fact that I know that no thinking people would scroll the Facebook timeline and still wait to catch some with my post makes me no different from those people in the casino slot machine section.

I have successfully cut off the scrolling habit with a firm decision to stop it forever, and there is no reason to ever reconsider this decision. But I haven’t realized until now that waiting for the Facebook audience to appreciate deep thought is my brain’s malfunction. Social media is not for thinking.

Next thing, I went to the links of bloggers and thinkers I have saved for myself to read. Usually, those are long reads. Sometimes they are short and deep. I felt relief like a non-smoking person would after walking out of a place full of smokers with a dense curtain of poison in the air.

If I don’t expect someone to share deep content in a Facebook post (most of those people simply don’t have that account), why do I expect someone to read mine?

I don’t say that my content comes from a higher intelligence than any of my friends on Facebook. But I do say that Facebook is not a forum for thinkers. I can only reserve it for the marketing materials I will produce. Because it is a marketplace for shallow information and quick wins, just like casino slot machine rows.

Millions of lonely people scroll for useless information, and awareness itself feels like the only real jackpot.