Jim Murray

2 years ago · 3 min. reading time · ~10 ·

Blogging
>
Jim blog
>
For Everyone On The Far Side Of My Apathy Ratio

For Everyone On The Far Side Of My Apathy Ratio

Jim Murray
I am an ex-ad agency creative director,
writer, art director, strategist, editorialist,
reader, TV & movie watcher. I have been actively

posting on social media since the early 2000s.

I live with my wife on the beautiful Niagara Peninsula

in Canada and work with a small group of companies

who are making a positive difference in the world.

 

COPYRIGHT 2021 MURMARKETING

This is a post I wrote about 6 years ago. What's really odd about it is that you can read it like I wrote it yesterday, and all the truth in it would still be true. Go ahead. See for yourself.

The opinions expressed in this post are exactly that, and all based on my own experiences in social media and the other place called the real world.

A while back, I took down my Facebook account. I wrote a post about it, citing my reasons at the time, the foremost among them was the incredible proliferation of bullshit by people I didn’t really know and their creepy friends. I had about 2200 “friends’ the vast majority of whom requested me to friend them.

One day, with nothing better to do, I did a rough count of the actual number of those people with whom I was interacting. That number was just over 100 people, many of whom I knew personally from my 3-D life. Then I looked at the number of people and companies who had snuck in there, who were posting crap and that I had no interest in and that added up to another hundred or so.

So then I asked myself; what about the other 2000?

At the time, I didn’t think to attribute any sort of quality to them. But the question remained. I mean, how could I have accumulated 2200 friends on the world’s biggest social media site and never actually hear from about 90% of them? But this morning, when I was thinking about what I wanted to write about today, the thought occurred to me, that it could very well be that these people, the ones I never hear from, are nothing more than apathetic.

It’s The Same On LinkedIn

Because I blog a lot and have developed channels of distribution beyond the hopelessly cluttered, notification challenged confines of LinkedIn Pulse, I get at least 4 link requests a day.

My connections have grown from about 300 when I started blogging here to around 3000. Since I have never been big on quantity v quality that’s actually quite a lot for me.

But what I have dubbed the “Apathy Ratio” is still about the same as it is on Facebook. Around 90% give or take.

So I am starting to see a trend here.

Is Social Media Really Bullshit?

Social Media. Two words. One of them is social. Yet the vast majority of the people I am allegedly connected to are nowhere to be seen or heard from. Very unsociable to be sure. So the question then becomes, what the hell are you doing here? Or are you here at all? And if you’re not here at all, meaning if you don’t really have any presence besides your half baked profile and a list of connections, do you really count?

Does this make LinkedIn’s powerful boast that that they have more that 300 million active members and Facebook’s even more grandiose boast of a nearly 1 billion+ nothing but bullshit?

Apathy & Bullshit…The New Online Dynamic Duo.

I do have a certain amount of sympathy for all the apathetic people out there. For many, participating in on sites like Facebook and LinkedIn is really a lot of work. And it’s not for the feint of heart.There are bullies and trolls and assholes everywhere just waiting to rip you a new one. There is the potential for embarrassment from not being seen as interesting enough. Or articulate enough. Of whatever enough.

But the fact that you’re here, even if you’re not here, makes you a stat that the owners of these sites can market. And they do. And this really does create the impression that these sites are happening places, when in fact they could be nothing more than a bunch of rather small networks of people who are active and have found each other. They are merely part of the 10% side of the Apathy Ratio.

What Can We Do About Apathy In Social Media?

I’m not sure there is much that will work to drag the huge numbers of apathetic people out of their comas.So in my opinion, all you can do is nurture and support your own networks. Because at the end of the day that’s really all we have here. And don’t feel bad about deep sixing anyone who you are linked to but have never heard from in any way shape or form.

In a way it’s kind of like life, where you can count yourself lucky to have a handful of good friends. I count myself lucky both here, with a small group of talented active compadres,  and on Facebook too (down to 200 ‘friends’ all of whom I actually know in one way or another).

Needless to say my Apathy Ratio has definitely improved.

KJyZf.png
My blogs are all accessible here:
https://www.bebee.com/@jim-murray
I am also a Featured Contributor at Bizcatalyist 360˚
https://www.bizcatalyst360.com/author/jimmurray
You can also follow me on social media:
beBee: https://www.bebee.com/@jim-murray
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jim-murray-b8a3a4/
Facebook: https://tinyurl.com/y97gxro4
Comments

Jim Murray

2 years ago #1

I find I am becoming more judicious about the time I spend on social media, for all the reasons you outlined. For some reason I have become obsessed with my screenplay writing and I just found another noveli that I started and have written two more chapters. Have you moved yet?

Articles from Jim Murray

View blog
10 months ago · 4 min. reading time

The last couple of decades in the life of planet Earth have been very strange ones indeed. · As a wr ...

1 year ago · 3 min. reading time

This is the second in a series on branding strategy for authors. But in actuality, it applies to vir ...

1 year ago · 4 min. reading time

This is the third in a series on writing, which is something I have been doing professionally for mo ...

Related professionals

You may be interested in these jobs

  • Randstad Canada

    Opérateur

    Found in: Talent CA C2 - 2 days ago


    Randstad Canada Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Canada Temporaire

    Es-tu à la recherche d'un poste dans production alimentaire dans un environnement agréable et confortable ? Tu as de l'expérience en production alimentaire et tu aimerais la mettre a profit ? Tu cherches un milieu de travail humain, convivial, ou tu seras à l'aise ? · Ne cherche ...

  • Designer Brands

    The Shoe Company: Sales Associate

    Found in: Talent CA C2 - 1 week ago


    Designer Brands St. Albert, Canada

    Job Description · Job Description · WILL YOUR SHOES TAKE YOU TO A CAREER AT THE SHOE COMPANY? · #Canyoufillourshoes? · We're looking for a (Part-time) Sales Associate for our The Shoe Company banner - St. Albert - who will put their best foot forward. · As a (Part-time) Sal ...

  • Amplitude

    Senior Product Engineer, Customer Data Platform

    Found in: Talent CA C2 - 5 days ago


    Amplitude Vancouver, Canada

    Amplitude is a leading digital analytics platform that helps companies unlock the power of their products. More than 2,300 customers, including Atlassian, Jersey Mike's, NBCUniversal, Shopify, and Under Armour, rely on Amplitude to gain self-service visibility into the entire cus ...