One thing I'm not proud of is how much I care about followers and "follower etiquette" on social media.

I have a rough mental list of a few people that won't follow me on Twitter even though they know who I am. For what reason? I have no idea. But that fact that I care about it and think about it is fucking pathetic.

Often, I'll be having a conversation over Twitter and I'll hover over someone's username to see if it says "FOLLOWS YOU". I'm embarrassed to admit how much I check that.

I'm very careful with who I follow on Twitter, because why? I don't know. It definitely doesn't matter, at all...

I look at my follower and following count every day when I log onto Twitter. I have a mental note of where it is and how much it's gone up.

It feels nice to admit this. I'd like to not give a fuck about this because it would clear up so much mental energy.

But I think we all care about this stuff to some degree. It's so petty though.

I'm not proud of any of this, but I also don't think it's just me being a sociopath. These social media companies build these features to make you feel like that.

Younger generations have much less shame about how much they care about followers. I'm not sure why. Kids think a lot about "follower etiquette". And you see it in the news, too, for example.