This morning I checked Twitter and saw I had a new follower. Curious as to who this new follower was, I checked his profile. “Buy 500 new followers for $29.”
A friend I follow on Instagram was begging for help in getting her to 1000 followers.
These days, it’s all about the numbers.
Even at work, they follow my stats. It’s not about the effort made to find families, or how I reached out to help them. What matters how many I actually saw and if I closed the case within the required time frame.
When did we move from a species that interacts with one another to a species where interactions are little more than hash marks?
Truth be told, Rumpy could care less how many Twitter followers he has. He only cares which ones have cookies.
True confessions: Rumpy has close to 5,000 Twitter followers, but regularly interacts with fewer than 50 of them. Some are bots, some are businesses, and some are trolls looking for an opportunity to trash talk. The numbers may be impressive to you, but what does that really mean?
If you’re wondering how far my reach goes- how many of you I can affect with my words- you should see my numbers when I get on a tear about something. Yeah, I can get the word out when I need to.
But mostly what I want to do is be among a community of people who care about something besides themselves and are not consumed with their own personal brand of dysfunction. Funny how I found that on the Internet.
So true. The same thing happened in education. Learning used to be measured by a smile, an “oh! I get it!,” a nod, a “this is fun,” or a “look what I did!” Now it’s all numbers, stats, bar graphs, and scores. The best teachers work twice as hard to get the good stuff into their kids’ day. The good stuff still matters. Years later nobody remembers their rank. They remember the projects, experiences, stories, and activities that they shared.
Posted by Genevieve Petrillo | December 7, 2015, 5:44 AMAnd it’s probably why we have such burnout. Funny how an idea that was designed to help disadvantaged youth instead turned more kids into disadvantaged youth.
Posted by rumpydog | December 7, 2015, 5:47 AMLot of “how to build traffic” posts but with about 75 very loyal followers of an alleged 2,000, that’s all I can keep up with. I am getting about 800 blog related notifications a day now. It is overwhelming as I do want to make return visits.I have had to limit interacting with only most frequent visitors but do the others once in a while.
Posted by Carl D'Agostino | December 7, 2015, 6:14 AMI know, right? And for those of us that have other responsibilities (and I’m pretty sure that’s all of us), keeping up can be overwhelming at times.
Posted by rumpydog | December 8, 2015, 3:03 AMI’m happy with my followers, I always try to read all posts and all messages on FB and to have more than 1000 would kill my time-plan :o) … eggs-cept Santa sends me some of that elves…
Posted by easyweimaraner | December 7, 2015, 6:19 AMI need Santa to send Rumpy an elf assistant for his blog…. with cookies, of course.
Posted by rumpydog | December 8, 2015, 3:04 AM… you can get a lot of cookies from google LOL
Posted by easyweimaraner | December 8, 2015, 6:53 AMStats ratings likes hits ..all so impersonal..and people wonder why they have issues..i like who i like and write what i want if liked then good if not then whatev..life is real and stats and ratings are ether ..pee ss Rumpy looking very floofy today 🙂
Posted by Fozziemum | December 7, 2015, 6:35 AMIt’s wintertime here and his winter coat is coming in. Sadly, the fact we live in Florida doesn’t stop nature from doing its thing.
Posted by rumpydog | December 8, 2015, 3:05 AMPoor baby…we travelled to the top end of our country last Christmas..this poor mal had his coat so thick…just wanted to give him a big cool towel to cover him 😦
Posted by Fozziemum | December 8, 2015, 3:07 AMA malamute coat works as a cooling system too. That’s why a mal’s coat should never be shaved.
Posted by rumpydog | December 8, 2015, 3:11 AMI know it’s like our sheep here..they get shorn but it needs to be done at the right time so they are protected summer and winter..you still feel hot for them 🙂
Posted by Fozziemum | December 8, 2015, 3:16 AMGreat point. The more platforms of communication have available, the less we seem to connect
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Posted by Roy Sexton (Reel Roy Reviews) | December 7, 2015, 7:05 AMAin’t that the truth?
Posted by rumpydog | December 7, 2015, 7:15 AMGlad to read that I am not the only one who is not fixated on numbers and just likes to post on my blog for enjoyment purposes. I have connected with a few bloggers whose posts I really look forward to reading. Quality over quantity is more important in my book. Enjoyed the photos of Rumpydog.
Posted by noofmitchell | December 7, 2015, 7:32 AMIt is nice, isn’t it? to meet people you never would have otherwise met, just by sharing thoughts online? Much more fun than trying to sell X-brand dog food on your blog. Ugh!
Posted by rumpydog | December 8, 2015, 3:06 AMI bet if Rumpy ran for president he’d ban these things for their stupidity! Are you in, Rumpy? [say ‘yes’ …please! 🙄 😉
Posted by marina kanavaki | December 7, 2015, 7:46 AMRumpy would run for president, or anywhere you let him run, for that matter!
Posted by rumpydog | December 8, 2015, 3:06 AM😆 !!! Well, if he ever decides to run for president, he’s got one very faithful voter! 😉
Posted by marina kanavaki | December 8, 2015, 3:08 AMHe wouldn’t need secret service either- he could guard his own home! LOL
Posted by rumpydog | December 8, 2015, 3:10 AMA full package!!! 🙂 😆
Posted by marina kanavaki | December 8, 2015, 3:46 AMCongratulations
Posted by willowdot21 | December 7, 2015, 7:56 AMLOL
Posted by rumpydog | December 7, 2015, 9:53 AMRight on! I’m laughing at Marina’s comment about Rumpy running for President. Reminds me of a town who voted a dog as their mayor. No kidding and that town actually got along. Small town, no big statistics there, just a lot of sanity to recognize the intelligence of a dog. 🙂 (I think it was featured on 60 minutes years ago,not kidding).
Posted by The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap | December 7, 2015, 9:10 AMPresident Rumpy. I guess that means my title would be Secretary of Pooper Scoopin’.
Posted by rumpydog | December 8, 2015, 3:07 AMI agree Numbers don’t bother me too because its all too much work and blogging for me and Speedy is about fun and reading interest things we care about,xx Rachel and Speedy
Posted by speedyrabbit | December 7, 2015, 11:03 AMIt’s more enjoyable that way, isn’t it? I tried the “let’s make some money” path and it made me miserable.
Posted by rumpydog | December 8, 2015, 3:08 AMright on
Posted by sorrygnat | December 7, 2015, 2:16 PM🙂
Posted by rumpydog | December 8, 2015, 3:08 AMAnytime I get a comment (from a real person) on my blog posts I am genuinely surprised. I forget sometimes that reading someone else’s story makes them **more** real and also helps us feel less alone. Sharing our stories fosters community. To that end, if sharing my weirdness helps anybody… fine with me 🙂
Posted by A.E. | December 7, 2015, 2:59 PMIt always helps somebody…. and you too in the process!
Posted by rumpydog | December 8, 2015, 3:08 AMBusinesses are always about the numbers – even when it concerns human lives.
Posted by Alejandro De La Garza | December 7, 2015, 3:38 PMYeah, well maybe that’s why I’m never going to be a successful businessman. I like the neatness of numbers, but they rarely tell a good story.
Posted by rumpydog | December 8, 2015, 3:09 AMI’m with you. It’s easy to cook numbers to support anything or position. More importantly, Rumpster…digital cookies don’t have much flavor. They ‘look good’ on the stats sheet but that’s about all. Sigh.
Posted by Tails Around the Ranch | December 8, 2015, 9:50 AMEnjoyed your post. I have numbers on Twitter and Facebook that I am comfortable with but the interactions are not very ofter except with maybe 30 or so. That;s why I don’t persue numbers anymore because then you don’t even kno who you are dealing with. Add to that the Trolls tha try to make friends with you so the can steal your money, like I have any. 🙂
Posted by Susan | December 9, 2015, 2:36 AMI get dozens of PR pitches every day. I know you can relate.
I’m astounded at how many are totally inappropriate for my blog-sex toys, books about war, agricultural products. Anyway, I marvel at the fact that these people have jobs despite sending out pitches that are unlikely to get any attention for their clients.
Do they actually get paid by the email?
Because if I ever worked so ineffectively on my job, I would have gotten fired very quickly.
However, I do think you’re not alone in appreciating the importance of engagement over numbers.
Posted by somethingwagging | December 10, 2015, 9:40 AMYes, I think most of the bloggers I’m associated with think similarly.
Posted by rumpydog | December 10, 2015, 9:48 AMIn my case, I have only 10 or so Facebook friends but they are all very trustable like you, Rumpy to me and I don’t care about getting more friends…twitter, too. I’d love to keep up with those very precious friends for a long time!
Posted by eripanwkevin | December 13, 2015, 2:34 AM