Verify Me, Zuck

I’m sorry, (well, not actually sorry, but I know this is about to hurt some feelings), but if you pay to have a verified blue check mark on instagram, people are definitely going to reserve some judgment. By people, I am definitely including myself in that sentiment. Sure, who am I to proclaim how absolutely cringey it is to have such an inflated sense of self that you pay a multi-billion dollar entity an agreed upon amount of money per month in order to get a symbol next to your name that you hold in such high regard that you think makes you look more important. A symbol generally reserved for famous people or public figures, but hey, now for a mere $8 a month that same blue check mark next to the names of Kanye West and Elon Musk also sits right next to a basic old Chris Johnson. But instead of being awarded to you as an earned privilege, you felt entitled to purchase it. Perhaps you needed something in your life to set you apart from the average Instagram user. Couldn’t be your mediocre and unfulfilling job, a failing marriage with a partner who shows you no affection and kids who would rather be anywhere else, or just an overall unsatisfactory feeling with anything or anyone else. So you gotta chase that high somewhere, and if you aren’t finding it at the bottom of a bottle or in a syringe, maybe Mark Zuckerberg can dole out a hit of that spicy little blue checkmark. Just one bump to get you hooked and keep you coming back to the dealer month after month to get your fix, never truly satisfied, always chasing the dragon.

Now, I am not talking about someone who uses it to boost up their business. Let’s say you start a company, or run a small business, become an entrepreneur, or small-time creator, and you’re trying to put yourself out there. That blue checkmark might help you get noticed as once upon a time it was synonymous with the likes of the VIP’s in the world. If someone sees user engagement with a verified account, it can briefly make them do enough of a double-take that your business, product, or design can get some hard-earned recognition. There is the slight chance that that bright little burst of blue can help propel your company and/or product and garner the attention that is needed to help it start generating the financial revenue needed to support you and your family. No, this is more for the person that just randomly purchases a checkmark to acquiesce their inflated sense of self and stroke their own ego because someone else isn’t stroking it enough for them.

Did you get noticed enough growing up? By your parents and your family? Sucks either being an only child and everyone else is too consumed with their own lives to notice you or you’re just one of many and not the golden child or far less accomplished. Fortunately, there’s always your peers in your school, or is there? Unless you’re at the top of the totem in popularity, school can truly suck for many people. Even worse, it can be a lonely and desolate place, as apathy and neglect will do much more harm to a person’s psyche than outright loathing. Or maybe once you entered the work force, started busting your ass for the man but the man took no notice. Others getting credit or taking credit for all of the hard work you’re putting in. Well, that’s not fair. Your brain just screaming. Pick me! Notice me! Credit me! But no such luck. Maybe you engage in several different romantic relationships, but each one as unfulfilling as the next. Each partner you’re with seems to take more than they give, and it begins to to wear on you and take its toll. Well, fuck. What does that leave?

This leaves a world full of adults clamoring and groveling for those who show them any inkling of attention as their desperation for grows for what others can provide. They will gravitate toward those they deem ‘worthy’ and who they hold in high regard and esteem. If they are in a certain career path, they will worship the big wigs in that field. Even if they are subpar themselves, they will smarm their way to the top and excel at doing so and know how to rub shoulders with who is important after years of being overlooked, even by their own family, even by their wives and their husbands. You see this all the time in Jiu Jitsu, people will leave their faithful Jiu Jitsu schools for the next big name in the area because of what they think that person can provide. And do you want to bet that there is a blue check mark in the abandoner’s Instagram bio as well? Trying so desperately to be like someone else they hold in high esteem. Flitting from school to school, kissing the feet of the great one to bestow that next belt around their waist in the hopes to be just like them. But they will never be them. Just another dollar sign in the system in which the bills get paid.

You can jump from job to job or relationship to relationship, or spend hundreds of dollars in ad revenue and blue checkmarks and paid events to associate with the ‘big names,’ but it will never make you one of them. You can’t fill the void of your soul with a million verified meta checkmarks if you never search within yourself and find what fulfills you and brings you happiness. That comes from pursuing your passions and surrounding yourself with the right people. Even one of the greatest of all time, method actor Daniel Day Lewis, felt most fulfilled when he took long sabbaticals from acting to pursue shoe cobbling and woodworking in solitude or with only a small inner circle of close family and friends. I have said it a thousand times over and I will say it again, there are people I have been around that have made me feel lonelier and more miserable than the most destitute person in the world, and those now that can replenish my soul with more joy than I ever thought imaginable. I can post one measly picture on social media, and I still giggle like a schoolgirl when my husband comments something kind and sweet on it, and that means more to me than if the most followed person on Instagram did. Verified or not, I like the way things are going, and my wallet definitely likes not having to pay for it.