There was a time when people went to school to become teachers, doctors, engineers, and journalists. Today, many wake up with another ambition: to become viral.

The workplace, to some people, is no longer an office. It is on our phones and social media platforms, and the salaries come in likes, comments, shares, gifts, sponsorships, and followers.

Social media platforms such as X, Facebook, and Instagram reward what keeps our eyes busy. That is why a young woman with extremely large buttocks, cleavage, or physique, with no expressed tangible talent whatsoever, will put on a very skin-tight dress, position the camera to focus more on the buttocks, and deliberately dance in a way that attracts men’s lust. Such videos draw more attention and receive more likes and comments, with many in her message box giving her romantic vibes, like she is the best thing they have ever seen. These young girls then develop a celebrity syndrome, where they start to naively believe they are the best thing that can ever happen, forgetting they are not actually needed or liked, but wanted for sex like a useless prostitute.

Meanwhile, another spends hours explaining mathematics, youth in farming, their online business, nice clothes and sandals on sale, and struggles to get 10 views. Parents and teachers are now turning children into content before the children can consent. Others deliberately say something controversial about a famous person, often denigrating them, just to cause traffic to their sites for money. Other content creators are also into dangerous pranks, wearing satanic-like costumes to scare unsuspecting people on bush roads.

The algorithms understand this better than we do. The platforms reward what keeps our eyes busy. They do not measure what is valuable, but what keeps us watching. Therefore, some TikTok celebrities, so to speak, earn a living from gossip, trends, virality, traffic, likes, and engagements. Others survive by provoking outrage. Some manufacture relationship drama. The social media bloggers will not wait for news but will manufacture one. A celebrity coughs, and it becomes content. Two people unfollow each other, and it becomes breaking news. A rumour is treated as evidence because speed becomes more profitable than accuracy. Even ordinary users have learnt this trick. Do something shocking. Show more skin. Expose your private life. Insult the President. Not for anything, but for money now, attention, and traffic. Anything, as long as strangers refuse to scroll. Come to think of it, a person takes a microphone and a recorder, goes to the marketplace, and, of all the issues about hardships in the market and Ghana, chooses to ask our mothers their favourite sex position, preferred penis size and weight, and the number of times they have had sex in a day. Others, too, over-exaggerate reactions to ordinary events. We have become an audience that rewards profanity more than substance.

The irony is simple. Many people no longer ask, “Is this useful?” They ask, “Will this trend?” The broader reward? Society is slowly losing its appetite for depth because noise is easier to consume than wisdom.

The truth is that people naturally stop when they see something unusual. They look at the metrics of a post before they pay attention to it. But when everybody uses the same formula to compete for attention, we end up creating attention seekers, validators, and people who can only sell empty curiosity.

Users must understand that likes are not proof that your content is liked, but can mean you made your body lusted after. Views are not evidence of value. Followers are not the same as influence. Virality is the loudest but shortest, with lifetime consequences.

To admit, not everyone on social media is guilty of this. Many use the platforms to teach, inspire, and build communities. But they now compete in a marketplace where distraction often sells faster than knowledge.

I will admit that, as far as men continue to be men, posts on big buttocks and revealed breasts will attract more attention than a conversation about youth in farming. But let history remember those who contributed something worth paying attention to tomorrow.