You don’t need a sensation to be successful on social media. Continuity is needed. Controversy is not necessary, credibility is needed. There is no need to disclose personal secrets, it is necessary to share useful knowledge.
Tomnath Upreti
The attraction of Facebook monetization and personal privacy
Tomnath Upreti
The digital age has completely changed the way people live, communicate and earn money. What was limited to a few years ago as a medium for news, entertainment, and exchange of ideas, social networks have now become important platforms for business, education, advertising, personal branding, and revenue. Especially after Facebook provided monetization, thousands of people have become active in creating creative content. This change is also positive. Many people are gaining both respect and financial benefits by presenting their skills, knowledge, art and experience to the world.
But with every opportunity comes responsibility. The problem starts when monetization becomes an obsession rather than a goal and the number of followers becomes an addiction rather than an achievement. After that, more attention than the quality of the content starts to focus on the way to go viral. This is where the compromise with privacy, morality and self-respect begins.
Today, the competition to increase the number of followers on social media is inspiring people to make public those aspects of their personal life, which are really a matter of keeping private.
There is a growing tendency to share family disputes, sensitive scenes of children, videos of illness, moments of tears, personal conversations between husband and wife, weaknesses of elderly parents, even home addresses, banking related information or even daily routine. It may get a lot of reactions and followers for a while, but the long-term effects can be serious.
There is an important truth in the digital world—the Internet does not forget. Once a piece of content is made public, it is almost impossible to remove it completely. Someone can take a screenshot, copy it, download it or republish it on another network. Therefore, the idea of ‘delete later’ does not reduce digital risk. Posts that seem normal today can become a problem for employment, business, social relationships, or personal prestige tomorrow.
Today, many people have started to think of the number of followers on social media as synonymous with success. But history teaches a different truth—the crowd may applaud, but not a certificate of character. Popularity can be given by algorithms, but trust is earned only by conduct. Thousands of likes do not make a person great, a true belief makes a person great.
The real question is not how many people follow you, it’s how many people stand by you when you fall. Many followers on social media may be just numbers on the screen, but people who trust are a real asset to support you through life’s difficult phases. Followers can come with one viral video and disappear with another viral video. But the respect earned by honesty, morality, and trustworthiness deepens with time.
The irony of today is that people are more busy building popularity than building prestige. There is a growing tendency to think that content is more important than character, views are more important than values and trends are more important than truth. But momentary buzz can make a person famous, credibility is the only thing that brings long-term respect. Money can be earned again, followers can be increased again, but it can take years and sometimes not even a lifetime to regain lost trust. So the biggest asset on social media is not the number of followers, but people’s trust, their character and self-respect. This property can neither be given nor taken away by any algorithm.
In the name of monetization, people sometimes start making their own lives into stuff. From waking up in the morning to going to bed at night, you feel compelled to capture every activity on camera. Time spent with family also becomes a scene in the video. The worry of making a good video increases more than the pleasure of traveling. In this way, a culture of showing life rather than living it develops. As philosopher Guy Debord put it, in modern society, the performance of the experience runs the risk of becoming more important than the actual experience. Excessive use of social media is exacerbating this trend.
Another serious aspect is cybersecurity. Frequent disclosure of your home, children, travel, financial status, assets, or personal details makes it easier for cybercriminals, fraudsters, or people who want to abuse it. In many countries, financial fraud, identity theft, blackmail, and cyber harassment are on the rise due to the excessive sharing of personal information on social networks. Therefore, privacy is not only a personal right, but also a personal security.
There are plenty of examples of problems created by the misuse of social media in Nepal. Instances of misuse of personal videos, fake Facebook profiles, digital blackmail, unauthorized editing, character assassination campaigns and cyber harassment have been reported from time to time. Every piece of information shared on social media should be shared responsibly.
does not mean that monetization is wrong. In fact, if someone earns income by producing quality materials related to educational materials, literature, science, agriculture, health, tourism, art, language, entrepreneurship or social consciousness, then it is a very commendable work. Many of the world’s most successful digital creators have achieved long-term success by putting their knowledge, skills, and creativity beyond their personal lives. Their success comes not by selling privacy, but by producing quality content.
We have to ask ourselves an important question—would I still be releasing the same content if monetization stopped? If the answer is yes, then that material is probably valuable. If the answer is no, then we may just be spending our own privacy to please the algorithm.
doesn’t need a sensation to be successful on social media; Consistency is needed. Controversy is not necessary, credibility is needed. There is no need to disclose personal secrets. Useful knowledge needs to be shared. Gaining respect for the right reason is a much bigger achievement than getting a lot of followers.
There is a proverb in Nepali society—”It takes years to build respect, one moment is enough to lose it.”
This is especially true in the digital world. An inattentive post, an emotional live broadcast, a private video or an unbalanced statement can have a serious impact on a reputation you’ve built over the years.
So let’s look at Facebook monetization as an opportunity, not as the ultimate goal in life. Let us make social media a medium of knowledge, creativity, positive thinking and inspirational action. Let’s not make our children, families, personal relationships and privacy objects of the digital marketplace. The number of followers may fluctuate, viral content can be forgotten in a few days, but character, credibility and self-esteem are assets that will last a lifetime.
Money earned from
social media can be regained, but it is extremely difficult to regain lost trust, shattered reputations, and public privacy. So be successful on social media based on your knowledge, creativity and ethics, but not at the cost of your own life. This is the foundation of sustainable success, responsible digital citizenship and true personal freedom.
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