What manner of intoxication is this?
What manner of fascination is this?
Eyes feasting on likes and follows,
Like there are no tomorrows.
So consumed am I,
Watching in bated anticipation for the rise of the ticks,
The highs and lows of the statistics.
The likes and nudges, the pokes and comments serve as melodious balm to my eager sapping soul and a fan to the embers of my creative juices.
With glee, I keep my hand shamelessly on the click, checking and rechecking the stats, like a fisherman who has cast a bait in hope of catching a fry.
What gives birth to such desire for validation, from friends and strangers to you and I?
Could it be our preening narcissistic selves that seek such adulation and approval? Wanting to know that we are not one lone echoing voice, unheard in the cacophonous decibels of all that goes on around us?
Could it be, could it be, the simple truth, that indeed no man is an Island? That we need each other to survive, be it in the real or virtual World?
We grasp with greedy, clutching fingers at any sign of love and approval sent our little way. Are we equally as giving, of this easily hard-earned love?
What manner of sorcery and captivation is this? To the likes, the ticks, the tweets, the follows, the apps, the phones, the comments and many more to come.
It is called Digital addiction.
© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
a cooking pot and twisted tales 
An awesome outlook on this ‘digital’ addiction which is common in today’s tech-world. Nice. 🙂
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Thank you so kindly. I feel as if I am talking to a kindred spirit 🙂
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🙂
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Brilliant Jacqueline. And true! Having been bitten by the viewings bug – and not in a good way – I am content with likes and comments! Especially comments! Liked the bit about fishing bait.Cool. Bless you sister – Reuben 😄
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Thanks Reuben, it gradually creeps in on you and if one is not mindful it becomes obsessive.
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Digital intoxication, a bug of sorts! It bites, draws & drains all attention , commitment & loyalty to all else. A demi god, slavish master-that idol, in the digital sphere!
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You know what I am saying 🙂 One has to take it in small doses really.
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Interesting piece. Still feel like I’m relatively new to making my writing public but have already felt this (for Likes, Comments and Followers).
I think part of it for me personally is due to self-esteem issues I typically wasn’t the best judge of my own writing for years and so yes – having a stranger come along, Like my poems and Follow me does give a confidence boost in that area: especially if they also bother to comment and explain why they were excited by it/liked it etc.
Equally though I have since learned to take the Likes with a pinch of salt. A piece getting five times more likes than another doesn’t necessarily mean it’s five times better…it could be due to a certain key word used, the time of day it was posted etc. So no longer delete pieces that don’t get any Likes.
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This analysis makes a whole lot of sense. I think that most people starting out newly have these same feelings which possible dwindle as time goes on and one gets better used to it all. Those likes and comments definitely serve as confidence boost like you said, and most importantly, we should just keep writing.
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