Being Different Is The New Basic

Social media users are trying desperately to be different. Almost everyone tries to diversify their content with unique pictures, clever captions, stunning poses, etc. I have heard social media managers, influencers, and other professionals say that the best way to gain a big following on social media is to “be different” and “find your niche.” It's all about showcasing your individuality.

            However, in a world with billions of people and millions of social media users, it’s statistically improbable anyone could think of an idea that is so unique that no one else had thought of it before. It’s also unlikely that a social media user could come up with a niche that does not relate to another topic that’s already on the internet. Any idea will inevitably fall closely aligned with thousands of other ideas. Famous writer Mark Twain once said, “There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope” (n.d.).  

    

            The advice to be different, in a roundabout way, is just pushing everyone to like someone else. Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer wrote that the idea of the individual is an illusion (2017). After reading this week’s assigned chapters, I agree with them. When a person decides to become something different or change something about themselves, they are just becoming like someone else. They are changing one similarity for another. 

             For example, every high school had at least one student who dressed in black and used dark eyeliner. They would claim they wanted to be different. That was called being “emo.” A lot of people did that. One of my friends from my high school got tattoos after graduation to reflect her rebellion and individuality. Turns out, about a dozen other students did the same thing for the same reasons. Another example is social media influencers. There are tens of thousands of fitness, wellness, and health “experts” on the platforms and they all claim to be different. But, they all fall under the same category and give similar advice.

   Adorno and Max Horkheimer wrote, “The individual is a fictitious character” (2017, p. 18). Our perception of individuality in our culture is just an illusion. Especially with social media. It’s now basic, common and standard to be "different." In our effort to be unique, we are reproducing like-minded content. Social posts have become another form of mechanical reproduction. Horkheimer and Adorno state that mass production is only benefitting top leaders (i.e. owners of the social media platforms) (Benjamin, 2007). Users are spending hours a day on these platforms trying to gain followers and increase interaction rates. They recreate trends and use popular sounds, similar hashtags, and clever captions to stand out. The posts, however, depreciate every time one of these methods is repeated. I would also argue that the individual user depreciates their own uniqueness when they recreate trends. The phrase “you are one in a million” is more factual than it is a compliment. You are one person out of millions (or billions) of people. Do you think individuality is an illusion? Do you believe you are an individual who isn’t influenced by the culture around you or on social media? 

Sources: 

A quote from Mark Twain’s Own Autobiography. (n.d.). https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/843880-there-is-no-such-thing-as-a-new-idea-it

Benjamín, W. (2007). The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction. In SAGE Publications Ltd eBooks (pp. 25–33). https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446269534.n3

Horkheimer, M., & Adorno, T. W. (2017). The culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception. In Routledge eBooks (pp. 405–424). https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315251196-23