Being "Friended" is not the same thing as having Friends...

... and having "Followers" is not the same thing as being Followed.

I'm really amused by the show Selfie.  If you're a social media junkie like I am, you probably are too.  While the show has been criticized as by some as being too annoying, it's a social media gold mine.

Our heroine is played by Karen Gillan, whom you might remember fondly as Doctor Who's Amy Pond.  Eliza Dooley, is a self obsessed girl who is never more than inches from her cell phone and her social networks.  She has an epiphany after a nasty bout of food poisoning in which she was left to suffer entirely alone because she had no actual friends.  During the course of her misery, she reaches out to several people connected to her across various social media channels, only to have them message back with unsupportive words or outright taunts over her circumstance.

Eliza learns the hard way that being Friended, is not the same as having Friends.

*sigh*

Recently I've been hit with a similar epiphany.

After getting serious about blogging again I started to fully integrate myself back into the wide world of social media.  I started communicating to the outside world in more than just Facebook status updates, but took to Twitter as well.  I'm on everything else now too, but Facebook and Twitter are basically the social media dynamic duo.  You get the social media holy trinity when you add in Google+.  I digress...

After tweeting to a new TV show, I was really surprised when the show itself started following me on Twitter.  I was all, 'Oh Cool, something famous FOLLOWS me'.

Time passes, and I aquire more followers.

I realize that I'm starting to get a lot of attention because I tweet about social media and social media marketing quite a bit.  Other social media enthusiasts begin to connect with me.  I'm elated.

Taking seriously the effect of one's social media reach in terms of actually gaining fans or professional contacts, I begin to look into the products and services that claim they will increase my twitter followers by the thousands, tens of thousands and even, oh yes, even by the HUNDREDS of thousands.  Curious, and having been offered free trials, I check them out.

I'm ... what's the word?  I'm usually so good with words.  I'm speechless?  I'm dumbfounded? I'm Offended?  I'm downright fucking pissed off?

Some of these sites, services, apps, whatever actually troll the internet looking for hashtags and keywords in peoples tweets, and automatically, yes I said AUTOMATICALLY, favorite, follow and even send direct messages via Twitter.

What

The

FUCK

People

?????????

At what point did social media completely cease to be, oh I don't know, actually SOCIAL!

After this I started going over the mental list of some of my own recent favorites and follows.  Like the TV show... Oh, and that community of runners (as in sports, as in running for sport, as in fun and EXERCISE) yeah, I'm talking to you!  I tweeted that I was watching a string of connected HORROR MOVIES.  You favorited my tweet only because it had the word 'marathon' in it.

And the rest of you bots that have been favoriting my tweet asking for actual HELP on something, and not offering a single shred of actual assistance.  Yeah, you're NOT impressing me!

I have learned the hard way that having Followers is not the same as being Followed.

I'm not resolving to do anything about this.  I'm not going to wage protests or boycotts or anything.  I may be irritated by my so called 'followers' who are actually just spam bots... but what the hell right?  Some people don't have my kind of free time and have to resort to bots to advertise.  *shrug* whatever.

I'm just disheartened is all.

And those of you who are actually Flesh and Blood and Real People.  I just want to take the time to say I love you, and to thank you for actually being there.