Online Desk: People like to be noticed- for their unique thoughts, behaviours, good deeds, etc. And social media seems to be a great platform for that. There are many faces of a person. Metaphorically speaking, people usually live more than one life in a lifetime. As Shakespeare said, “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players.” – it doesn’t even amaze us today when we keep playing different roles in our day-to-day lives. While playing these roles, the craving for attention somehow grabs us in different forms, especially on social media, as not a single day passes when you have not touched your phone. But does the virtual world affect our peace of mind?

Md. Sajib Hossain, a former philosophy student of Dhaka University (DU), always loves to look at life from his own philosophical point of view, “At present, technology has reached such a peak that we can’t ignore it. Things that were very natural for us before have become a luxurious thing for us now. We look for those in search of our peace of mind.”

He thinks that a calm and serene atmosphere, gazing at the fireflies or even greenery, has become something far away. Now we spend money to enjoy these. So, things have changed for us, and social media is part of it.

“Not that I become very sad when I don’t get many comments or reactions on my social media posts, but it is impossible to deny that I don’t enjoy getting those ‘reacts’. Human beings, by default, crave validation from others,” he further added.

As a self-acclaimed common user of social media, Nusrat Zabin Biva, Media and Communication Officer at Manusher Jonno Foundation, put her experience, “I only use Facebook as a form of social media; I don’t have other hyped media such as Instagram or Twitter. And in general, I regularly post on Facebook or put a story on Messenger.”

When asked how much it affects her when the post engagement or ‘reach’ decreases, she replied in a humorous way that she didn’t really see it that way. For Nusrat, some ‘sorry’ feeling is very common if a post doesn’t get the expected engagement, but it never becomes serious.

Prokash Sikder, a Machine Learning Engineer, states his analytical view on the regular life of social media and the relation between the virtual and real world, “In today’s era, people have built another life on social media which we call a virtual one. So, if we look at that prospect, if someone doesn’t achieve their expected attention on social media, it impacts their mind in real life.”

“It can even be said that people are talking about themselves and their feelings here more than in real scenarios. I think that it surely varies from person to person, but it affects some people more, and they can do nothing but carry the consequences along with it.”

Md. Imran is a journalist at a national television. He commented on the relation between a user’s self-esteem and the attention they are getting, “I think the existence or lack of attention on social media is very much relatable to people’s self-esteem. Because not everyone posts something here without any purpose or just for fun. Many people want their message to be delivered and their thoughts to be acknowledged.”

For writers who share their content on social media, Imran thinks, “The lack of attention, such as reactions, comments, or the number of shares, affects a writer’s self-esteem growth on social media. Because enough attention here means direct popularity, and if someone doesn’t get it, they might not feel popular enough to continue.” Imran named it ‘social media celebrity syndrome.’

How can we measure attention? Do we have a certain scale? Well, it also varies depending on people’s choices and shifting sign meanings. A feature writer for a national daily newspaper, Bidhora Rowshan Jahan Prova, focused on a crucial parameter of attention on social media, the ‘reactions.’

“The exchange of reactions on social media posts is sometimes calculative. People tend to react with ‘love’ to someone’s post depending on their previous reaction to their posts. I have met many people who value this give-and-take system of attention on social media. And when someone does not get the expected attention on a respective post, it naturally negatively impacts their mental state. For example, if someone gets a ‘Haha’ reaction when they expect ‘Love’ or even ‘Care’, they don’t feel very happy.”

Prova also remarked, “Many people have the habit of deleting posts if they don’t get proper attention to those posts. I think the craving for attention impacts a user’s mental peace.”

Is social media a platform only focused on the attention-seeking behaviour of people? In this regard, Sabbir Hossen, a Staff reporter of a national daily, identifies the connection between social media and our practical world, “Though it is a virtual world, we are so much connected with social media that sometimes we take it as an illusion of the real world. Even if we don’t get enough scope for attention in real life, this platform opens an endless chance to grab attention. And everyone goes for it, both in positive and negative ways.”

These were all the thoughts of regular users of social media. But the case might be different for a vlogger, for whom attention is the only key to going on with the flow.

Meer Raihan Masud is a travel, food and sports vlogger. He indicates how the lack of engagement of hype down of ‘social media reach’ affects him, “Post engagement doesn’t matter much to me. But I am happy if the reach hypes up than usual; if not, then it’s fine with me. Maybe the main reason behind this indifference is that this is not my primary income source. If it were, it would surely affect me much more than now. And if we talk about the negativity on social media, I care less about the negative comments than the misinterpretation of my content or message. Certainly, it irritates me for a while if someone trolls something or someone dear to me just because it is a public sphere, but the feeling eventually goes away very soon because these people are not a part of my life, and I don’t even know them.”

Mental peace doesn’t follow a certain formula, but anything or anyone capable of ruining it should be kept in check because nobody should control our life when we can be the ringmaster. Technology will keep evolving every day, always more than the last moment. But we should not lose the connection with ourselves in advancing relationships.