Supporting Strangers

It's crazy to me that people I know will support total strangers and not their own family and friends. They watch hours of videos made by millionaires, they like, share and subscribe to total and complete strangers, and some will even give them money in support when they clearly don't need it.

Yet when someone they know posts something on social media, it tends to be met with negativity or apathy. The same people who will share a video from a YouTuber they have never met won't press like on something a friend or family member has put real effort into. No support or sharing, in fact it is often the opposite. Rolled eyes and sniggers.

My guess is that distance has a lot to do with it. A millionaire on YouTube is so far away from your own life that their success says nothing about you, they are just something to watch. Someone you went to school with or work alongside having a go at something is much closer to home, and that is where envy creeps in. Tearing down has always been easier than building up, and picking holes in what someone has built is easier than admitting they are doing something you aren't.

A lot of us were taught not to be boastful too, so when someone we know puts themselves out there it gets read as showing off. Who do they think they are. A stranger doing exactly the same thing is just someone to subscribe to, and it takes a lot less to snigger at a post than it does to make one.

Most of the support turns up once it is no longer needed. People will pile on to a video with two million views and scroll straight past a post with three likes, or pay a stranger a monthly subscription and then ask a friend for mates rates. Every one of those millionaires started out posting to nobody. James Clear says the loser has more in common with the winner than with the person sitting on the sidelines, and someone you know posting to three likes has far more in common with the millionaire than with the people sniggering at them.

None of this is a dig at supporting strangers. Most of the support I have ever had has come from people online I have never met, and I am grateful for every bit of it. All it takes is the same like, share or well done for the people you actually know. It costs nothing, and it will mean far more to them than it ever will to a millionaire.