Inspiration Station - Do You Like You? (Beyond The Like Button)

Have a question for Mista Yu? Text the show and he’ll answer it personally.

The relentless pursuit of digital validation is reshaping our identities in ways we rarely acknowledge. What does a "like" actually mean? Does it represent genuine support, momentary agreement, or something else entirely? These aren't abstract questions—they're central to understanding how social media is transforming our relationship with ourselves.

When I recently took a three-week break from posting, I returned to find platforms that seemingly forgot my existence. This algorithmic amnesia reveals something sinister: unless we're constantly feeding the digital beast, we become invisible. For content creators, small business owners, and everyday users alike, this creates a troubling dynamic where we feel pressured to maintain constant presence regardless of personal cost.

Most concerning is how social media affects those with emotional vulnerabilities. While some dismiss negative outcomes as affecting only "weak" individuals, the reality is that platforms designed to trigger dopamine responses can impact anyone's psychological wellbeing. Before investing hours scrolling through carefully curated content, we must honestly ask ourselves a fundamental question: "Do I like myself?" Without this foundation of self-acceptance, we risk gradually reshaping our authentic selves to match whatever we believe will attract more followers, subscribers, or customers.

Social media serves legitimate purposes for connection and communication, but maintaining healthy boundaries is essential. Can you remain emotionally balanced when algorithms render your content invisible? Will your sense of self remain intact when engagement metrics disappoint? By approaching these platforms with awareness and intention, we can utilize their benefits while preserving what matters most—our authentic identity.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Thank you, hey, welcome back to the All Purpose
Pod for an all purpose life,wherever you are, and have you
listening to?
They call me Mr you in theinspiration station.
Thanks again for making us partof your week.
I appreciate it.
I know that our family and ourand our team appreciates it so
much.
We're grateful for you guys.
Thank you for all of themessages, responses, comments,

(00:58):
everything you've been sendingour way in regards to the
episode that have been blessingyou.
I definitely appreciate that.
A lot of changes going on withour brand.
We'll try to get to that atsome point.
Maybe do an episode on that,only just to kind of give more
clarity on a few things.
But for the most part, we justwant to talk to you about you.

(01:19):
You know social media.
I talk about this because Ithink it bears repeating,
because we don't seem tounderstand it like we should or
we're not getting the subtlemessages that are being sent to
us regarding social media.
But the quest for likes isgetting to the point where
people are starting to losethemselves on this journey.

(01:40):
You know, and I know that I'vemade my position clear about
social media.
I know personally I have somehuge challenges with it If I
could avoid a lot of that.
I probably would If it was upto me.
I know that I have a lot offriends and family that follow
our work through social media,so you're the ones that I'm

(02:02):
thinking about, which is why Istill have accounts open, just
to be clear.
But what does the like even mean?
I'm asking that among someother questions.
But what does the like mean?
Does it mean that they likewhat you said?
Does it mean that they agreewith you, they like your style,
your flair.
They like your style, yourflair, like the thought that you

(02:26):
used.
What does it mean to get a like?
We chase it so much and wethink it means that people
support us, that people likewhat we're doing, that people
want to be a part of ourindividual, professional,
creative journeys, and it's like.
I don't think it means that.

(02:46):
Honestly, I don't know what itmeans.
It could just mean exactly thatI like what you said.
I don't want to walk with you,I don't want to grow with you, I
just like what you just said.
I agree with what you just said.
If you didn't say it, I mighthave said it first.
I disagree with that and thatmay be all it is Social media

(03:08):
and all of its attempts toconnect people.
I believe that people from yourold high school, people, from
your old workplace.

(03:29):
Social media is supposed toconnect us to those people.
I get, I think I get thatsometimes it feels kind of
sinister, though, just to behonest, social media feels kind
of sinister.
It's almost like you have tostay on it so much just to stay

(03:50):
relevant so that the people whoyou want to see what you're
saying can see it.
Case in point there was a time Ihad to take a social media
break.
Some personal stuff was goingon and it just wasn't a good use
of my time to be on sendingtweets and posts out, to be on
sending tweets and posts out.
So I was away from theplatforms, maybe about three

(04:14):
weeks, something like that.
I came back.
The platform tried to act likeit didn't know me, excuse me.
It acted like they didn'tremember who I was, because I
was gone for three weeks.
I wasn't posting stuff andsharing images and sharing
episodes from the podcast andstuff.

(04:34):
I'm like wow, and I found thatto be somewhat enlightening.
I said, oh, okay, so if I'm nothere every day pouring into
this algorithm, if you will.
If I'm not feeding thisalgorithm, this Seymour that's
hungry all the time, feed me,seymour, then I'm not relevant
anymore.

(04:56):
Sometimes social media can bereally really sinister.
I think we need to watch that.
For those that are in content,creating podcasting media, got a
business, a small businessyou're trying to promote.
Be careful of the chase forlikes.
You know this.
I'm not giving you news.
You know this.

(05:16):
Be careful about that journey.
It usually ends up reallyreally bad for us.
Don't chase likes.
Don't even chase shares.
Don't chase likes.
Don't even chase shares.
Don't chase retweets.
If somebody has emotional issues, think about it like this
Somebody has emotional issues.

(05:36):
Does social media make themfeel better about themselves or
does it exacerbate what'salready going on with them and
make them feel worse?
There's stories out here.
You can find them.
I'm not going to share thesestories.
These are stories about otherfolks' lives.
They're doing a great job ofsharing that People who are in
compromised emotional situations.

(05:58):
Social media quote unquote willpush them over the edge to the
point where they will die ofcircumstances as a result.
Some people will say, oh, thatperson just weak.
If they were as strong as I was, because I don't care about
nothing.
It would never happen to me andit wouldn't happen to them.

(06:20):
They were like me.
But, honestly, your socialmedia is supposed to be there to
connect, to encourage, toinspire.
If social media is supposed tobe there to connect, to

(06:52):
encourage, to inspire like wetalk about, like we hope, hope
upon or even by a so-calledfriend does social media make
you feel worse about thatsituation, about your own
self-image, your identity, ordoes social media build you back
up again and encourage you andhelp you get stronger?
What does social media do foryou?
Evaluate that question, thinkabout that.
What does social media do foryou?
Because if you're going tospend five hours, six hours,

(07:16):
some folks even more, the numbergets way higher.
I'm talking about a day,sometimes double digit hours a
day on social media.
What does social media do foryou?
I'm going to turn to whateverthat is, but one thing I want to
ask you before we close theepisode out really brief episode

(07:37):
I want to kind of just get somethoughts going here, ask you
some questions and maybe perhapscreate a conversation between
us.
But, beside what social mediadoes for you, ask yourself this
question Do you even likeyourself?
I think at the end of the day,we better get to that place and
figure that part out before wego to social media looking for
likes and look for people tothumbs up our content and to

(08:00):
share us and support us andsubscribe to our channels.
We got to answer that questionfirst to our channels.
We got to answer that questionfirst.
Do you like yourself?
Do you like the way you talk?
Do you like the way that youtreat other people?
Do you like the way you respondto negative circumstances and
adversity?

(08:20):
Do you like how you are aroundyour family?
Do you like how you are aroundsomebody you don't know that
well?
Do you like the person that youare right now?
Find the answers out to thosequestions before you embark on
this journey for likes andshares and retweets.

(08:42):
I'm telling you because I knowif you don't do that, you're
open to all kinds of ideas,suggestions and before you know
it, you're changing and remakingwho you are into.
What you think sells, what youthink converts followers into

(09:02):
subscribers and sales.
You start changing more andmore of who you are at your core
to be what you think everybodyreally wants.
Ask yourself do you likeyourself?
Do you like you?
Social media is a weird.
It's a weird bird.

(09:23):
We can talk about that forhours.
At the end of the day, we allhave to use it, or some
semblance of it, to furthercertain goals or to produce a
certain result, a call to action, or just to send out
information that's pertinent tosomebody who we can reach out to

(09:43):
in other ways.
So it does serve a purpose.
My only question to you is areyou fully aware of who you are
as a person, so that if youdon't get the result you want,
or it doesn't go the way youthought it should go, or your
request gets lost in thealgorithm because you can't stay
on a platform for 12 hours aday, are you going to be able to

(10:07):
be okay?
Will you be emotionallycompromised or will you be okay?
These are the kind of questionsyou got to ask yourself.
If you have any more questionsabout this or something I said
that didn't make sense to you,reach out to me.
I'm happy to have a discussionwith you about it.
I'll make time to do that, soreach out to me, let me know.
You can find us, of course, onour YouTube channel, youtubecom,
at theycallmemisteryou, ofcourse, and all of our listening

(10:28):
platforms, and, of course,facebook, true.
However, you want to reach outto me by all means.
Please do Love to hear yourthoughts on the episode and its
content and look forward tohearing from you soon.
We are out.
Have a wonderful day, you.