Social Currency: More Valuable Than the US Dollar?

Over the last several years, social media websites and news sites alike have begun to thrive and spread virility through the use of "like", "share", "retweet", "reblog", "favorite", "+1", "upvote", and other similar buttons. These buttons allow users to rate content and embed it into other similar services, thus continually expanding the brand of the host service and doing the leg-work for the company's advertising. For example, every YouTube video that is embedded in a website includes a YouTube logo which links back to their site in the corner of the player. Therefore, every time a user chooses to click one of the buttons it benefits the company at no consequence.

The reason for the overwhelming success of these reaction buttons is because they contribute to the digital social economy. Humans, to state it simply, like being liked. The social economy is not a new concept; people have always been willing to exchange social currency in exchange for social services. For example, if someone holds a door for you, you are inclined to thank them. As a result of receiving the thanks, that person may now be inclined to hold more doors so that they can earn more thanks. While this example may seem trivial, the digitization of the social experience has come with a new, quantifiable version of the social economy which is anything but trivial.

Getting "likes" on a post is vital for advertising agents looking to spread their brand in the digital age, and earning likes is no different than earning US dollars: the user simply has to have an accurate and adaptable understanding of the current economy. In fact, in many services such as Facebook, the more likes a post has, the more people will see it in their news feed. This allows each like to have an exponential impact on the social success and exposure of each post.

I find the social economy to be truly fascinating. For many people of varying ages, races, political views, socio-economic statuses, and whatever other common categories you wish to include, social currency has strong real-life influence. To describe all the ways these things have impacted society would take too long, but it doesn't take much more than some quick research on the success of YouTube celebrities to know that the basic statement is true.

I recently discovered that there are services which allow you to like other people's posts which earns you digital coins which you can spend on likes for your own posts. This is truly incredible! There is now a quantifiable social equivalent of investing. The term "economy" holds surprising accuracy with this new digital social model, so much so that while I was working on this article I caught my friend saying the following in a group chat:

The digital social economy is a very real socio-economic force which has arisen in recent years and must be considered valuable, both in a socio-political fashion and a financial one. The power of the "like" button and its many comrades should not be taken lightly as we journey into this new, quantified social era.