Instagram/Facebook/Snapchat ... help me understand social media

[Railer]

In the context of viewtopic.php?f=3&t=12327, the girl asked me if I had Instagram.

I wonder why girls I meet on Tinder, already "transitioned" to WhatsApp, ask me for social profiles (I don't have any.)

1. Why do girls want my Instagram? Do they want to see some more pics of me? Or is IG relevant in any other context besides possible pictures of myself?
2. Why do girls ask me for Facebook? Do they want to check my social circle? What exactly do they want to screen for?
3. Why do girls put their Instagram in their Tinder profile? Are they just on Tinder in order to get followers on IG? Why?
4. Why do girls put their Snapchat in the profiles? What's the use of Snapchat in a dating context? Any messenger would do, right?

 

[JimmyB]

1d10t, I feel your confusion. I ditched social media altogether as a solution. Made life much clearer.
There can be plenty of reasons. The first that comes to mind is that they want more followers either in Instagram or twitter or more Facebook friends. That way they don't have to get to know you but can see you on their facebook or see that you liked their picture on instagram and say "oh, he liked my picture!" smile and get some instant gratification before forgetting about you.
Another is that they want more pictures of you to better judge, since you're meeting on tinder and have limited info to go by.
It's also probably just habit - they meet some guy on tinder and get him to follow her on instagram, facebook, never meet in person and repeat the process.
A lot of it doesn't require much thought, man. These girls just like attention and the more followers the better. There really isn't any logic to it, so don't strain yourself too hard trying to figure out social media. IMO all social media takes more effort than it's worth.

 

[Lover]

In the era of social media, a few key words are important to gain popularity: attention, validation and fame. How to achieve those? Through likes and followers - doesn't matter if you know your followers in real life or not. You must have a profile that is perceived as popular, and the number of likes on each picture and the number of followers are great indicators of (online) popularity. It's kinda like online preselection. Snapchat's a little different from FB and IG but its purpose is the same (I won't go into details since you're not using the app). It's all super shallow but it's a good way to pretend you're famous. For all your questions, it can be summed up as: girls do this to become more popular in virtual space.

 

[Railer]

Thanks all of you for your responses. Realising that "everybody" is just living their fun moments in order to show off to others makes me sad. Maybe there is some deeper meaning to that in a certain context, but for now I simply consider it stupid.

If you had me guess, I'd image that I'd get laid more if people had more information to relate to. The ones who happen to get to know me, usually like me (and more), but obviously nobody will get crazy over one profile picture and some messages, right? That is, unless others told them to by "liking"? What a fuckup.

I'm not going to support this stupidity by building up an online fake identity. ("fake" because anybody is only prestige posting on these sites anyway.)

- This could just be my experience with the app, but younger girls (18-21) seem to like the app just for self-assurance

That's my experience too. They evade any attempt to meet up (like the one mentioned in viewtopic.php?f=3&t=12327).

... pfff I remember this girl from Tinder. Impossible to meet, but when we ran into each other in a club by incident, she almost begged me to take her home: "But whyyyy not?"

Tables had turned - she now knew I was a stunner and I now knew she was not.

By the way, it could be that the girl is simply not sure about herself. There was one which looked like quite a stunner on the pics, but she evaded any meetup until we finally made a group on whatsapp with her, her friend + her guy friend and exchanged a lot of fun stuff there. We finally met up - the whole group - "just for fun". It turned out both girls were quite overweight and not as good looking as on the pictures ... but well I guess once that happens to you, you develop an eye for that and become able to judge by the pics.

 

[Zoro]

Girls feed off the validation from social media. If she's asking you about your instagram, she wants you to follow her.

Honestly I think that a girl HOPES that you aren't on social media and that you're a man who's different and won't give her superficial validation but rather give her an experience, sweep her off her feet, ravish her like only a man can.

If she's interested, you'll know if you escalate and lead the interaction.

Yes, she will be interested in creeping on your social media pages. If you lead an amazing life style with awesome photography and photogenics then she'll be happy to follow you. If you didn't make a move when you met her, she probably will like all your pictures, and never agree to meeting up. Delete your social media and demonstrate your masculinity in person.

 

[JimmyB]

Honestly I think that a girl HOPES that you aren't on social media
J Wick that's an interesting point. I wonder how accurate this is and if a study has been done on girls' opinions about it. When some one shares everything through an app, not as exciting when you see them in person. I see the value for girls, because looks are so important and you can edit all of your photos and get idiot guys to drool over you. But for guys - social media cannot be good for guys.. that's my take.