“Look at this cool thing I found!” It can just be nice to share stuff with other people. There doesn’t need to be a deeper reason, it’s a function of humans being social animals.

This includes motivations such as wanting to discuss the thing with other people, to compare your own view with theirs, or simply to satisfy the need to yell at someone.

Edit: typo

The first word in social media is “social”. People typically post on social media because they want to socialize in one way or another.

Many reasons. Searching for opinions and perspectives like you seem to be here. Searching for information and recommendations to resources. Sharing interesting things with friends and family.

Dopamine. Affirmation. Attention.

Although I don’t share that much on social media anymore.

“Why do people talk to other people”

I’m a performing artist. The stuff I share promotes causes I enjoy, keeps me relevant in an ever expanding scene, and helps get the word out for local shows and events.

Also a lot of shitposting. Mostly shitposting.

I’ve been shitposting and talking to other anonymous people online since 1999.

UBB anime boards

Somethingawful

4chan

Reddit

and now, I dance the babushka, for you!

And now, I find myself home to Lemmy. Just one of the thousands of Anons posting opinion, then meme, then opinion, then shitpost in the background static of the greater internet hive mind.

Arguments, rebukes, comments, discussions… discourse. It’s all necessary to me. I have to get in the fray. I have to cause the fray, in some instances. Discussion is life, passion in many instances. People care about what they care about and I both want to know why and tell why.

I love to read and I love tellign people about obscure/underrated authors.

I’ve been heralding Tanith Lee for decades. Writers like Neil Gaiman and Poppy Z. Brite are pale imitations of the original.

Ross Thomas. Washington reporter turned crime novelist. “The Porkchoppers” is about a Nixon Era Union election. Dozens of characters, ranging from DC power brokers to street level fixers, are all trying to cash in.

Dan Fesperman. Best new spy novels.

When I share, I’m trying to pay it back. Some of you jabronies shared some cool things with me that I wouldn’t have seen otherwise. So the least I can do is try and do the same.

And if everyone did this, Lemmy would be flush with content.

Mostly, to bring my friends joy.

Sometimes, to see if anyone is willing to discuss the thing I’m sharing with me.

I think commercial social media is literally ruining the world. I decided to be active on here to give alternative platforms legs to walk on. Every single post and comment here makes a significant contribution to stick it to the man - it’s a slightly more viable alternative with every user. Well, maybe except the assholes.

On Mastodon, I post for professional self promotion/reach. Taxpayers pay me to write stuff, so I owe it to them to try to communicate it back in open channels.

Because social media will usually allow us to contact other people with similar niche interests, people that we’d be hard pressed to find IRL

It’s not so much hypocritical of you to ask this question as it is you lack introspection.

People share things on social media to have interaction with other people, just like you did.

It’s very human to want interaction with other humans, we’re a social species.

In the case of social media the protocol is a little different than in 1-1 interactions. Everyone broadcasts their thoughts, and reacts to the thoughts of others, also in the form of a broadcast. It’s no more or less valid than other communications contexts. And not new either, technology just made it more efficient and available to everyone.

I tend to be painfully aware of my underlaying motives when ever I’m about to post something and it’s almost always some form of bragging so I refrain from posting it. If it’s not something I’d like to see on my own feed I don’t post it for others either.