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I’m not sure what you’re on about. What I’m saying is that people seek approval and or attaboys and attagirls. They want the likes and they want the comments, the recognition. This leads to this behavior.

If they were posting things to a virtual void the great majority would quickly decelerate the rate of this behavior.

The same with Twitter. The amount of garbage that platforms spews daily would go down tremendously if likes and retweets weren't a thing. I can't spend more than a few minutes reading the most cringeworthy crap without questioning why I'm even looking at it.

True, but I think Twitter is a bit different in some aspect. It’s still about recognition, but it’s more akin to oneupmanship with yo momma jokes (and similar things) where people attempt to impress via quips and such and getting the attagirls and attaboys vis this idea signaling.

It isn’t so bad when it’s a group of five or ten being smart or crass and obnoxious within that limited group. The amplification via Twitter makes that unbearable. I agree the metrics do ultimately drive this behavior too.

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