The Validation Economy

I watched that Nick Smith video about social media, the one that breaks down what we’re all actually doing when we’re scrolling and posting, and it landed harder than it should have. The internet used to feel like a place where people found each other and actually talked. Now it’s just this massive crowd, and the only way to matter is to be louder, prettier, or more scandalous than everyone else. Everything is a metrics game. Likes, shares, comments, followers—the numbers are the whole point.

We’re holding our stupid grins up to the camera, but not because we’re having fun or because we want to remember something. We’re doing it because we’ve organized our entire existence around whether strangers think we’re worth their attention. The moment doesn’t matter. The feeling doesn’t matter. What matters is the proof that we mattered, right now, to whoever’s scrolling past. It’s all validation. Just endlessly chasing these little digital tokens and telling ourselves that’s what being alive means.

The weird part is knowing this and still doing it anyway. I know the game is hollow. I see exactly how it works. And I’m still posting shit I think will land, still checking to see who liked it, still feeling that small hit when the number goes up. It’s not mysterious—it’s just how the platforms are designed, and we’re all caught in it. Maybe the video helps if you haven’t thought about it yet. For the rest of us, it’s just confirmation of something we already know but can’t quite stop doing.