I hesitated to click the clap icon because it is the wrong emotion. There should be a weeping icon to acknowledge the truth in this essay. Umair might have had a bit too much hyperbole for some but this essay is filled with many truths.

I was slapped in the face a few weeks ago in a doctor’s waiting room with the TV on. Absolutely SLAPPED. I think it was ABC Good Morning America with Robin Roberts as she interviewed some teenagers about the pending changes in Instagram about how “Likes” work.

The teens were going to drop Instagram because they literally said “their self-esteem was driven by how many likes they had”. I stared in disbelief and shock.

So … go right now and Google “Instagram Likes” and the first hit will be a paid ad that says: “Buy real Instagram Likes … Affordable … Prices starting at only $0.75”. The first page in the Google results are all ways to buy likes. It goes on screen after screen.

Yep … we are pretty sick. No … I take that back … we are simply pitiful human creatures. Partly for wanting to buy “likes” and partly for dozens of capitalistic enterprises wanting to sell us “likes”.

Absolutely zero of these are really based in the emotion of liking anything except the euphoria of having a large number on your Instagram page or the greed of selling them to you.

And this is the addiction that contributes to Mark Z’s wealth. It worked for Purdue Pharma … and it works for Facebook, Instagram, et. al.

My mother was part of the first facebook (little f not Facebook). Many decades ago before the Internet she had friends in the neighborhood and they would go visit each other and sit “face to face” across the kitchen table. This was real “likes” and real “friends”.

So … where can I find that “weeping” icon?