The Danger in Quantifying Relationships

I remember the first time I hit 1,000 followers on Twitter. It felt like a milestone, like somehow my account had become real. I felt, at the time, like I needed it quantified. I admit that there are times I have looked at pageviews and retweets and follower numbers out of a desire to think that I have influence. I have felt like I needed evidence of how larger or small my audience was. Audience. See that? Audience. In social media, we are our own reality show. And in our reality show, numbers are our version of ratings. On my best days, I can remember that it doesn't matter. I can strive for authenticity and humility and relationships. But in my darker moments, when I have wanted some kind of "proof" of my influence, I have noticed the numbers. Social media, by design, seems to feed a mindset of quantifying social influence. We have RT's and favorites and hearts and likes and re-blogs and +1. A part of this is human narcissism. But another part is an inherent flaw in a medium that feeds the narcissism. I'm embarrassed that I fall into this trap. I'm embarrassed that I sometimes want the numbers of comments or followers or retweets to prove that what I say is influential. I'm embarrassed that I have had moments where I thought Klout was as important as influence. So, it has me thinking of my classroom. It has me wondering about digital citizenship and social media. I'm a fan of using social media for connected learning. However, junior high was already hard enough for me without having my friend count quantified (I'm pretty sure my number was single digits). It leaves me with lingering questions. How do we, as teachers, remind students that it's not about the numbers when we, as adults, are still vulnerable to this? How do we get past the insecurity that drives quantified influence? How do we help them to see that their influence will never be their Klout?