If one person’s number is higher than another’s, then that person is more popular, right? Today, we look at your very public follower, friend, or subscriber count and we know. There was a time we used to just guess as to who was the most popular person in the room. What proceeds is a challenge to these mob-OKed assumptions. Just because we see others doing it en masse we benignly think it’s ok to engage in abhorrent activity. Like being thrust into a blinding swarm after our team wins a national championship, we lose our better judgment as to what’s right and wrong. After some reflection on a few of these annoying communications and others soon to be mentioned, I realize the reason many of these communications irritate me so much is because the sender thinks they’re doing the right thing.
In the past I’ve complained about 29 communication behaviors (See “16 Annoying Communications That Must end in 2011” and “13 Annoying Communications That Must End in 2012”). New tools and capabilities in social media have created new norms, some good, and others that unfortunately encourage repugnant behavior. This timing dichotomy results in seemingly appropriate behaviors that come off as thoughtless or self-serving. Our ability to change behaviors is not nearly as fast. Social media rearchitects itself very quickly.