Over the past couple of days, my feed has been swamped by all sorts of “social mining / points / identity” content. Once you click in, it turns out they’re basically asking you to clock in every day, repost, and comment—accumulate a badge, and somehow that means you’re “one of us” in the circle… The funny part is, the way your time gets siphoned off is almost polite.

What’s even funnier is that I still get the itch to go do it a couple of times too. But then I look back and realize I wasn’t watching market moves or the direction of sentiment—I was watching who’d just gotten another gold-edged avatar frame.

Meme trends and celebrity “signal-calling” campaigns are even more absurd in how they cycle your attention. Old-timers advise newcomers not to take the last leg of the handoff, and I think that applies to these points schemes as well: don’t treat “having status” as “having value.” These days, I follow my old habit—I'll wait for a confirmation first. Otherwise, I’d rather miss out. Either way, I don’t want to keep adding to my emotional ledger.