Photo by “My Life Through A Lens” on Unsplash

We live in a world where we can click a “post” button and share our opinions and beliefs to the world. However, we still have a mind set that if we share our ideas, we won’t reap the benefits. Perhaps the reason for social media becoming such an important part of our lives stems from a semi-unconscious understanding that if we all share, we will all succeed.

More connections, more technology, more potential

Homo Sapiens have evolved over time to become a more advanced species. Perhaps the most relevant evolutionary phase was when we went from nomadic hunters and gatherers, to sedentary farmers because this change in lifestyle lead to incredible technological development (University of Cambridge). Creating a “home-base” fostered our ability to develop more beneficial connections with people because we could share our ideas and work with others to create the technology that has given us the world we live in today.

As technology has improved, global interaction has become feasible. We have gotten to a point in communication where we don’t even have to reach out to someone to feel engaged. Rather, we can share an idea on our Facebook, Instagram, WordPress, etc. and people will reach out to us. Social media has given us a way to call and always get an answer. It has taken the fear of getting no response mostly out of the equation.

Today, it is much easier to research excellent individuals to add to our network and get into direct communication with them. E-mail or friending on LinkedIn makes the initial interaction less intimidating because we don’t have to show our face. We can hide behind a key board, put a lot of thought into what we want to say, and revise our final message before sending it off. Building connections around the world without stepping foot outside has created an incredible sense of global connectivity. However, what are we doing with this powerful tool we have? What are we doing with this tool that can help us work together with individuals across the globe to solve relevant problems? We are posting cat videos on our Facebook….

Social Media as and Evolutionary Act

I’d like to humor the idea that maybe social media was created as an evolutionary act. As I discussed above, our ability to develop more connections with a more diverse group of people has caused technological development to sky rocket. Maybe, social media is the result of a realization that we have to keep reaching further to find people to work with in order to keep advancing as a species.

Even if you just post your personal experiences on your social media, there is probably some relevant intention for it. Do you want to teach people about something you’re passionate about? Are you seeking guidance? It might be interesting for you to consider asking yourself the real reason behind making a particular public post. Humans have evolved to become more willing to share many things that we once had to compete for. We will talk about the best place to buy groceries because we know that even if other people find out where the food is, there will still be enough. We share interesting articles, events, art, but the one thing I wish we would share more is our knowledge.

To be honest, I think people could be a little less gung-ho about sharing every detail of their personal life (for the record, I’m also guilty of this) and more excited to share their brilliant ideas. We have been taught to be afraid to tell people about our ingenious research findings and inventions because until we get published or patented, we can’t claim the benefits of our work. I think this is wrong. Even as a student, there was material that I had to pay large sums of money to obtain, regardless of how much money I was paying for tuition. Even in academia, we can’t have free access to knowledge?! WHY?!

I’d like to think that if we stopped letting large institutions hoard all the knowledge by only sharing with those able to pay, we could make incredible leaps in our understanding of the world. There is so much knowledge on Earth, approximately seven billion different brains each with an average of 3,000 thoughts per hour. What if we could share all these thoughts and not have to worry about who gets the credit? What if it turns out that the majority of people want to share and work together rather than take credit for someone else’s work? I think if this is the case, surely those only interested in their own personal success will be phased out which could lead to a world where we can all be successful.