Inspiration Station - Do You Like You? (Beyond The Like Button)

The relentless pursuit of digital validation is reshaping our identities in ways we rarely acknowledge. What does a "like" actually mean? Does it represent genuine support, momentary agreement, or something else entirely? These aren't abstract questions—they're central to understanding how social media is transforming our relationship with ourselves.

When I recently took a three-week break from posting, I returned to find platforms that seemingly forgot my existence. This algorithmic amnesia reveals something sinister: unless we're constantly feeding the digital beast, we become invisible. For content creators, small business owners, and everyday users alike, this creates a troubling dynamic where we feel pressured to maintain constant presence regardless of personal cost.

Most concerning is how social media affects those with emotional vulnerabilities. While some dismiss negative outcomes as affecting only "weak" individuals, the reality is that platforms designed to trigger dopamine responses can impact anyone's psychological wellbeing. Before investing hours scrolling through carefully curated content, we must honestly ask ourselves a fundamental question: "Do I like myself?" Without this foundation of self-acceptance, we risk gradually reshaping our authentic selves to match whatever we believe will attract more followers, subscribers, or customers.

Social media serves legitimate purposes for connection and communication, but maintaining healthy boundaries is essential. Can you remain emotionally balanced when algorithms render your content invisible? Will your sense of self remain intact when engagement metrics disappoint? By approaching these platforms with awareness and intention, we can utilize their benefits while preserving what matters most—our authentic identity.

Hope you enjoyed today's episode! You can find and subscribe to our show on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Theycallmemistayu

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Chapters

• 0:35 Welcome to All Purpose Pod
• 1:22 The Quest for Likes
• 3:56 The Sinister Side of Social Media
• 5:58 What Does Social Media Do for You?
• 7:47 Do You Like Yourself?
• 9:43 Finding Balance and Staying True

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:35

Thank you, hey, welcome back to the All Purpose Pod for an all purpose life, wherever you are, and have you listening to? They call me Mr you in the inspiration station. Thanks again for making us part of your week. I appreciate it. I know that our family and our and our team appreciates it so much. We're grateful for you guys. Thank you for all of the messages, responses, comments, everything you've been sending our way in regards to the episode that have been blessing you. I definitely appreciate that.

Speaker 1: 1:05

A lot of changes going on with our brand. We'll try to get to that at some point. Maybe do an episode on that, only just to kind of give more clarity on a few things. But for the most part, we just want to talk to you about you. You know social media. I talk about this because I think it bears repeating, because we don't seem to understand it like we should or we're not getting the subtle messages that are being sent to us regarding social media.

Speaker 1: 1:34

But the quest for likes is getting to the point where people are starting to lose themselves on this journey. You know, and I know that I've made my position clear about social media. I know personally I have some huge challenges with it If I could avoid a lot of that. I probably would If it was up to me. I know that I have a lot of friends and family that follow our work through social media, so you're the ones that I'm thinking about, which is why I still have accounts open, just to be clear.

Speaker 1: 2:08

But what does the like even mean? I'm asking that among some other questions. But what does the like mean? Does it mean that they like what you said? Does it mean that they agree with you, they like your style, your flair. They like your style, your flair, like the thought that you used. What does it mean to get a like? We chase it so much and we think it means that people support us, that people like what we're doing, that people want to be a part of our individual, professional, creative journeys, and it's like. I don't think it means that. Honestly, I don't know what it means. It could just mean exactly that I like what you said. I don't want to walk with you, I don't want to grow with you, I just like what you just said. I agree with what you just said. If you didn't say it, I might have said it first.

Speaker 1: 3:04

I disagree with that and that may be all it is Social media and all of its attempts to connect people. I believe that people from your old high school, people, from your old workplace. Social media is supposed to connect us to those people. I get, I think I get that sometimes it feels kind of sinister, though, just to be honest, social media feels kind of sinister. It's almost like you have to stay on it so much just to stay relevant so that the people who you want to see what you're saying can see it.

Speaker 1: 3:56

Case in point there was a time I had to take a social media break. Some personal stuff was going on and it just wasn't a good use of my time to be on sending tweets and posts out, to be on sending tweets and posts out. So I was away from the platforms, maybe about three weeks, something like that. I came back. The platform tried to act like it didn't know me, excuse me. It acted like they didn't remember who I was, because I was gone for three weeks. I wasn't posting stuff and sharing images and sharing episodes from the podcast and stuff. I'm like wow, and I found that to be somewhat enlightening. I said, oh, okay, so if I'm not here every day pouring into this algorithm, if you will. If I'm not feeding this algorithm, this Seymour that's hungry all the time, feed me, seymour, then I'm not relevant anymore.

Speaker 1: 4:56

Sometimes social media can be really really sinister. I think we need to watch that. For those that are in content, creating podcasting media, got a business, a small business you're trying to promote. Be careful of the chase for likes. You know this. I'm not giving you news. You know this. Be careful about that journey. It usually ends up really really bad for us. Don't chase likes. Don't even chase shares. Don't chase likes. Don't even chase shares. Don't chase retweets.

Speaker 1: 5:31

If somebody has emotional issues, think about it like this Somebody has emotional issues. Does social media make them feel better about themselves or does it exacerbate what's already going on with them and make them feel worse? There's stories out here. You can find them. I'm not going to share these stories. These are stories about other folks' lives. They're doing a great job of sharing that People who are in compromised emotional situations. Social media quote unquote will push them over the edge to the point where they will die of circumstances as a result.

Speaker 1: 6:11

Some people will say, oh, that person just weak. If they were as strong as I was, because I don't care about nothing. It would never happen to me and it wouldn't happen to them. They were like me. But, honestly, your social media is supposed to be there to connect, to encourage, to inspire. If social media is supposed to be there to connect, to encourage, to inspire like we talk about, like we hope, hope upon or even by a so-called friend does social media make you feel worse about that situation, about your own self-image, your identity, or does social media build you back up again and encourage you and help you get stronger?

Speaker 1: 7:05

What does social media do for you? Evaluate that question, think about that. What does social media do for you? Because if you're going to spend five hours, six hours, some folks even more, the number gets way higher. I'm talking about a day, sometimes double digit hours a day on social media. What does social media do for you? I'm going to turn to whatever that is, but one thing I want to ask you before we close the episode out really brief episode I want to kind of just get some thoughts going here, ask you some questions and maybe perhaps create a conversation between us.

Speaker 1: 7:45

But, beside what social media does for you, ask yourself this question Do you even like yourself? I think at the end of the day, we better get to that place and figure that part out before we go to social media looking for likes and look for people to thumbs up our content and to share us and support us and subscribe to our channels. We got to answer that question first to our channels. We got to answer that question first. Do you like yourself? Do you like the way you talk? Do you like the way that you treat other people? Do you like the way you respond to negative circumstances and adversity? Do you like how you are around your family? Do you like how you are around somebody you don't know that well? Do you like the person that you are right now? Find the answers out to those questions before you embark on this journey for likes and shares and retweets. I'm telling you because I know if you don't do that, you're open to all kinds of ideas, suggestions and before you know it, you're changing and remaking who you are into. What you think sells, what you think converts followers into subscribers and sales. You start changing more and more of who you are at your core to be what you think everybody really wants. Ask yourself do you like yourself? Do you like you?

Speaker 1: 9:20

Social media is a weird. It's a weird bird. We can talk about that for hours. At the end of the day, we all have to use it, or some semblance of it, to further certain goals or to produce a certain result, a call to action, or just to send out information that's pertinent to somebody who we can reach out to in other ways. So it does serve a purpose.

Speaker 1: 9:47

My only question to you is are you fully aware of who you are as a person, so that if you don't get the result you want, or it doesn't go the way you thought it should go, or your request gets lost in the algorithm because you can't stay on a platform for 12 hours a day, are you going to be able to be okay?

Speaker 1: 10:08

Will you be emotionally compromised or will you be okay? These are the kind of questions you got to ask yourself. If you have any more questions about this or something I said that didn't make sense to you, reach out to me. I'm happy to have a discussion with you about it. I'll make time to do that, so reach out to me, let me know. You can find us, of course, on our YouTube channel, youtubecom, at theycallmemisteryou, of course, and all of our listening platforms, and, of course, facebook, true. However, you want to reach out to me by all means. Please do Love to hear your thoughts on the episode and its content and look forward to hearing from you soon. We are out. Have a wonderful day, you.