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.

“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.

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.

Dopamine. Affirmation. Attention.

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

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.

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.

"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

Reddit

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.

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

Mostly, to bring my friends joy.

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

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

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.

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.

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

idk I'm mostly here for the memes

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.

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...

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.

Sometimes I ask myself the same question when I share things just to be faced with my own feelings of purposelessness. I mean, the purpose should be sharing it to other people that'd be interested in the content, but the Dead Internet Theory has long been far from a mere theory. The insane amounts of bots and spam led people to rely on some kind of "web of trust", "web ring", etc. It was needed because it's never possible to know beforehand if a new profile will be spam/bot. And it seems good to find only what (should) fit our interests, following only people that you know whom produces good content. However, this behavior has a big downside, it rules out potentially interesting content from unknown people, which leads to the impossibility of hear and being heard, which leads to segregation, which leads to digital echo chambers. So, in such a web, friendless people, for example, inevitably fall into oblivion as they watch their content being filtered out because spam and bots needs to be filtered out.

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.

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.