What is the point of sharing something on social media?

"Look at this cool thing I found!" It can just be nice to share stuff with other people. There doesn't need to be a deeper reason, it's a function of humans being social animals.

This includes motivations such as wanting to discuss the thing with other people, to compare your own view with theirs, or simply to satisfy the need to yell at someone.

Edit: typo

The first word in social media is "social". People typically post on social media because they want to socialize in one way or another.

Exactly. It's the same as the answer to the question, "Why do you talk to people?"

Many reasons. Searching for opinions and perspectives like you seem to be here. Searching for information and recommendations to resources. Sharing interesting things with friends and family.

Dopamine. Affirmation. Attention.

Although I don’t share that much on social media anymore.

"Be the reason someone smiles today". ,.. and I need to gou out and touch some grass and take some more photos soon. I wanted to largely post pics of things people don't normally see and hope they go 'cool, that's a nice shot, might make it my wallpaper". Edit: I did get out, and saw some birds. https://lemmy.world/post/23520196

I've been shitposting and talking to other anonymous people online since 1999.

UBB anime boards

Somethingawful

4chan

and now, I dance the babushka, for you!

And now, I find myself home to Lemmy. Just one of the thousands of Anons posting opinion, then meme, then opinion, then shitpost in the background static of the greater internet hive mind.

Arguments, rebukes, comments, discussions... discourse. It's all necessary to me. I have to get in the fray. I have to cause the fray, in some instances. Discussion is life, passion in many instances. People care about what they care about and I both want to know why and tell why.

“Why do people talk to other people”

When I share, I'm trying to pay it back. Some of you jabronies shared some cool things with me that I wouldn't have seen otherwise. So the least I can do is try and do the same.

And if everyone did this, Lemmy would be flush with content.

I'm a performing artist. The stuff I share promotes causes I enjoy, keeps me relevant in an ever expanding scene, and helps get the word out for local shows and events.

Also a lot of shitposting. Mostly shitposting.

For me, it's nice to share information and have light, friendly interactions. I don't care for engaging in online conflicts or debates. That kind of stuff adds unnecessary stress to my life that I don't want.

As far as SM with my real identity, like IG: It's nice updating friends and family about life events. Sometimes I post silly things. Stuff like engagement doesn't bother me bc it's not about having a popularity contest.

But in particular, I like posting highlights as they happen throughout the year. My memory (for dates, especially!) isn't that great, so this lets me scroll through in chronological order and quickly see what I've been up to. It's sort of like keeping a picture diary.

Do you find Instagram is still working well for you for this purpose?

I signed up due to popular pressure at some point, and in the beginning the chronological feed was very nice. I would use it maybe once a week or less, and like the stuff my friends had posted since last time.

Then over time, my friends' content started drowning in I don't even know what. Sometimes I would see a post or two, but I would never see everything they had posted since last time. It just didn't work as a platform to use for consuming a finite amount of content.

I ended up abandoning ship. But it sucks a bit, as my friends might still be on there posting things I would have been happy to see.
- Yeah I agree the home feed sucks now, for chronological purposes. It used to be better. But what I do is I favorite (star?) close friends/family so that it gives me a notification whenever they post something. For everyone else, I might miss their updates especially since I don't spend forever on there...

Mostly, to bring my friends joy.

Sometimes, to see if anyone is willing to discuss the thing I'm sharing with me.

I love to read and I love tellign people about obscure/underrated authors.

I've been heralding Tanith Lee for decades. Writers like Neil Gaiman and Poppy Z. Brite are pale imitations of the original.

Ross Thomas. Washington reporter turned crime novelist. "The Porkchoppers" is about a Nixon Era Union election. Dozens of characters, ranging from DC power brokers to street level fixers, are all trying to cash in.

Dan Fesperman. Best new spy novels.

It's not so much hypocritical of you to ask this question as it is you lack introspection.

People share things on social media to have interaction with other people, just like you did.

I never really used social media, since I was deterred by the contagious cancer that Instagram/TikTok/etc. because of their algos, corporations and bots are. Thanks to Lemmy being different, I thought it would be time to start understanding this.

I think commercial social media is literally ruining the world. I decided to be active on here to give alternative platforms legs to walk on. Every single post and comment here makes a significant contribution to stick it to the man - it's a slightly more viable alternative with every user. Well, maybe except the assholes.

On Mastodon, I post for professional self promotion/reach. Taxpayers pay me to write stuff, so I owe it to them to try to communicate it back in open channels.

Commercial social media isn't social, it is just another content delivery system.

Because social media will usually allow us to contact other people with similar niche interests, people that we'd be hard pressed to find IRL

It's very human to want interaction with other humans, we're a social species.

In the case of social media the protocol is a little different than in 1-1 interactions. Everyone broadcasts their thoughts, and reacts to the thoughts of others, also in the form of a broadcast. It's no more or less valid than other communications contexts. And not new either, technology just made it more efficient and available to everyone.

I find like-minded people who don't exist locally.

Ego (in the broad, classic sense of our need to have self identity) and--increasingly--loneliness due to the husk of societal interactions many developed nations have let wither due to overwork, TV and privatization of public spaces.

I just like to argue with randos on the internet (as long as they'll argue back in good faith). Or debate might be a better word Idk. I also believe most people have a lot to learn from interacting with other viewpoints, and personally have learned a ton compared to when I first discovered the English-speaking internet because I stuck to this philosophy so I have no intention to stop now.

I tend to be painfully aware of my underlaying motives when ever I'm about to post something and it's almost always some form of bragging so I refrain from posting it. If it's not something I'd like to see on my own feed I don't post it for others either.

idk I'm mostly here for the memes

For social recognition. I would not post something on the internet if I didn't expect someone else to see it.

Its safer to say "FUCK [Insert Name of Politician]" online than irl...

well don't post it on an account with your name attached, but you know what I mean...

there is a pretty big difference between anonymous and nonanonymous social media. this is technically no different than a newsgroup or bbs so if its social media you can say social media has been around since the internet and before www. Anyway it depends on the platform and the person. some are looking to influence, some are looking for recognition, some are looking for validation, some are looking for information, some are looking to just fuck around.

I used to post on reddit only to troll shitty people Honestly, as time goes on, the less I feel the need to post anything. I realized most things on the internet are garbage.