A navy blue blazer hangs on the back of the wooden chair. The blazer has gold buttons. The gold buttons shine in the light. The man who owns the blazer does not own a boat. The man does not know how to sail. He does not know how to tie a knot.
He wears the blazer to dinner parties. He wears the blazer because the blazer says something to the other guests. The blazer says the man belongs to a certain class. The blazer says the man has a certain taste. The blazer is a signal. The blazer works even if the man never steps on a deck.
Elias and the Philosopher
Elias is a young man. Elias lives in a small apartment. Elias spends a day on his phone. He follows an account on YouTube. The account belongs to a man who talks about Greek philosophy. The philosopher wears a tweed jacket. The philosopher sits in a room full of old books.
Elias has never watched a full video by the philosopher. Elias finds the videos long. He finds the words difficult. But Elias keeps the account in his subscription list. He wants his friends to see the subscription. He wants his profile to show that he follows the philosopher.
In , a company sold a set of books. The set was the Great Books of the Western World. There were 54 volumes. The books were heavy. The books were expensive. Many families bought the books.
The families put the books in the living room. The books stayed on the shelf. The pages stayed white. No one broke the spines. The families did not read the books. The families wanted the books to be seen. The books told the neighbors that the family was educated. The books were a signal. The books were the version of a YouTube follow list.
The Calibration Specialist’s Fridge
I am a machine calibration specialist. My name is Zara M.K. I work with sensors. I work with tolerances. I fix machines that measure things. A sensor must be accurate. If a sensor says a box is heavy, the box must be heavy. If the sensor lies, the machine fails.
Humans are not like machines. Humans use signals to lie. I threw away my condiments this morning. I had a jar of truffle oil. I had a jar of grey mustard. The mustard was .
I never ate the mustard. I kept the mustard in the front of the fridge. I wanted people to see the mustard. I wanted them to think I have a refined palate. I am a calibration specialist, but I am also a human. I sent a false signal.
7 Realities of the Digital Signal
Defining the group. People follow accounts to show they belong to a tribe. If all the smart people follow a specific creator, Elias follows that creator. He does not need to watch the content. He only needs to be on the list. The list is the entrance fee to the group.
Saving time. Watching a video takes . Pressing a button takes one second. The button gives the same social reward as the video. People see the follow. People assume the knowledge is there. The follow is a shortcut to status.
The digital image. This image is not the real person. The image is a version of the person that the person likes. Elias likes the version of himself that follows philosophers. He does not like the version of himself that watches videos of people falling down. He follows the philosopher. He watches the people falling down. The follow list hides the truth.
Status Signaling. High-status accounts attract followers who want status. This is a loop. The creator gets famous. The follower gets a piece of the fame by being a follower. It is a social contract. The creator provides the signal. The follower provides the number.
Filtering. When a person meets someone new, they look at the phone. They look at the accounts. If the accounts match, the people become friends. The content of the videos does not matter. The match of the lists matters.
Mimicry. People look at what successful people do. Successful people follow certain accounts. The average person follows the same accounts. The average person hopes the success will rub off. It is a form of digital magic.
The Witness. A follow list that no one can see has no value. The value comes from the public nature of the list. We follow to be seen following. We do not follow to learn.
The Engineering of Importance
I see this in my work. A machine can be calibrated to show a certain number. If the owner wants the machine to show a high number, I can make it happen. But the machine is no longer measuring the truth. It is measuring the desire of the owner.
YouTube growth works in this way. A creator needs a high number to be taken seriously. A creator starts a channel. The channel has zero followers. No one wants to be the first follower. It is a social risk.
The creator understands the signal. The creator knows that people follow what is already popular. To fix this, the creator might youtube abonnenten kaufen to build a foundation. This choice is about calibration. It sets the machine to the right number.
Once the number is high, other people feel safe. They see the five thousand followers. They think the channel is important. They press the button. They do not watch the video yet. They just want to be part of the five thousand.
The social signal is the primary product. The content is the secondary product. I felt shame when I threw away the mustard. I felt like a fraud. I am a specialist in accuracy. My fridge was a lie. Elias is not a fraud. Elias is a person living in a digital system. The system rewards the signal.
If you have a channel, you see this. You see people subscribe and never return. You see the numbers go up but the watch time stay low. This is not a failure of your video. This is a success of your brand. You have become a blazer. You have become a gold-lettered book on a shelf.
People want to be associated with you. They want their friends to see your name on their screen. They are wearing your channel like a coat.
The act of following is a performance. We perform for our friends. We perform for our coworkers. We even perform for the algorithm. The algorithm sees the follow and thinks it knows us.
The algorithm suggests more philosophers. We keep not watching the philosophers. We keep watching the people falling down. But the profile stays clean. The profile stays smart.
I think about the blazer. The man at the dinner party is happy. He feels like a sailor. The other guests treat him like a sailor. The blazer has done its job. The fact that the man gets seasick does not matter. The dinner party is not a boat. The internet is not a classroom. It is a room full of people looking at each others’ buttons.
We must understand that the number on the screen is a tool. It is a tool for trust. It is a tool for growth. When a creator chooses to grow their numbers, they are calibrating their social signal. They are making sure the blazer fits. They are making sure the gold buttons are bright.
The mustard in the trash proves the signal on the shelf was a lie.
I will buy new mustard tomorrow. This time, I will buy the yellow mustard in the plastic bottle. I will buy the mustard that I actually eat. I will stop signaling.
But I do not think Elias will stop. Elias likes his philosopher. He likes the way the philosopher looks on his phone. He likes the way he feels when he tells people he is a subscriber. The signal is too strong to ignore. The signal is the point. The content is just the excuse.