Do you think people give too much value to the social media ‘Like’? Are people, especially young teenagers, obsessed (some may even say addicted) to how many people ‘Like’ a post or ‘Like’ a photo?

Well, let me ask you this: When the Internet is down, do you experience withdrawals? Are you so driven by this drug we call social media that getting just one more ‘Like’ elicits a response akin to that of a drug addict?

Now, I would never call someone a social media junkie, but is it so far from the truth? As a parent, what looks like teenagers just being teens and them being a “little obsessed” with taking a selfie could hide a desperate and deep need for validation from social media ‘Friends’.

This validation is, however, falsely driven by the “Like for Like” phenomenon many teens trade as emotional currency! Being cut off from the Internet for a week for a teen could and often does lead to social ‘Like’ bankruptcy.

It sounds like I’m trying to be too clever here, but parents need to understand that their children have grown up in a world where nothing is private and everything is shared, and their very self-worth exists on the screen of their phone.

It scares me sometimes how clueless we, as parents, are. You look at a 30-something’s Instagram social media profile and you will see interesting photos of friends, places they have been, and food they they eaten. Today’s teens post a horde of selfies, photos of an artificial world with friends getting together more to take selfies showing they are having fun than to actually have fun.

Just like the filters offered with most apps, the photos are designed to show how popular and happy they are. Even the smallest detail needs, as always, to be perfect. They are as happy as people see them being!

But are they? That is the tragic sadness of “Like for Like.” It is not real – people do not like what you post or say, but feel they need to pay you back for liking their photo or post. The real ‘Likes’ are lost in the clutter.

I went on my own Instagram account and, lo and behold, I have 60 followers and I follow 41 people. 5 people ‘Liked’ the last photo I put up. They were, however, people I knew, whose opinion I valued. I am mature enough to know that 5 people ‘Liking’ my kid’s attempt to make a gingerbread house is not a surprise.

I come from a generation that achieved validation through actions and not some cleverly manipulated image.

I do not need Snapchat’s floppy ears or doe eyes; I do not need Instagram’s latest filter or to pass a voice note over Whatsapp. Friends for me are not something on my phone screen, but earned a place in my heart long before Facebook invented the ‘Like.’

But like I said at the very beginning: Do you think people give too much value to the social media ‘Like’?

Sadly, the answer is “Yes”, and every now and again, our children are going to be a little short on ‘Likes’ and we are going to need to reach into our wallets of old-fashioned love and be there for them…

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