Recently I have been noticing some fishy things on popular social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. And no, I don’t mean fishy like spam or ads. There have been so many people thirsty for attention and more importantly, followers.

Most of you should be familiar with a tweet that sounds something like this: “RT for free Chick-fil-a!” or “RT so I can go to prom with Selena Gomez!”. Usually these come with a screenshot of a DM (Direct Message) with that particular public figure saying that if the tweet gets enough retweets they would go through with their agreement.

Earth to the people who retweet these things; THESE ARE FAKE. Please explain how someone with a total of approximately 157 followers got into a Direct Message with Selena Gomez to ask her to prom. Twitter users will photoshop these things to make it seem like they had gotten a written agreement from someone of importance, just to get the retweets.

These thirsty twitter users are getting what they want. Attention and followers. It doesnt matter if they know a single one of the people that have followed them, what matters is the number on their profile. As if this makes someone…famous or important?

Just this month a Michigan mom of an 11 year old boy created a Facebook page for her son Collin’s birthday. She claims that the purpose of this page was to boost Collin’s self-esteem on his birthday (March 9) and show him that he was loved after everyone left comments on the page.

I wish this mom would understand that digital comments cannot heal a person on the inside. What is she teaching her child now that the page has almost 2 million likes? He cannot gain satisfaction and happiness through Facebook for his whole life. Especially from people that he will never meet or interact with in real life. Now that the Facebook page has become so popular the surprise has almost been spilled to Collin many times. The mom claims that kids at school were telling him that they saw him on the news, and he was wondering why. Earth to mom: your kid is 11 years old! There is no way you are going to keep this a secret for much longer.

Also, the mom must be satisfied because of all of this instant fame and publicity. But should she be the one satisfied? The original intent was to make the boy feel good and now its turned into a publicity stunt for this average middle class family. Can you imagine waking up one morning and mindlessly making a Facebook page, and one week later it have 500 times the amount of likes that was originally anticipated. This mom has posted photos of all of the mail she has been receiving from strangers in their PO box. All of that mail would make me feel sick and anxious, not knowing who and where it came from.

The general public knows so much about this little boy’s personal struggles. I, frankly anyone in the world, can gain access about this young boy and know about his personal medical problems. I don’t know about you, but I feel odd knowing about such personal information. Most normal parents try to keep their children under their wing, protected from strangers. This mom has invited them into what should be the most private parts of her life.

It seems that recently normal everyday people will do anything to gain the attention of thousands of people they don’t know, by sharing a personal story or creating a scam for followers.

The bigger problem is that we buy into these attention seeking, selfishly motivated individuals. The question is, why are we will to make stupid people famous?

If the best things you have in your life is Facebook likes and retweets from Twitter, I feel bad for you. I urge you to reevaluate your day to day motives and what drives you to happiness. Social media is no outlet to happiness within.