- Crypto Twitter is in danger of doing to men what Instagram does to women – negatively impacting their mental health through sometimes artificial boasts about success
- Men traditionally set much store in their financial prowess, which leads many to copy those who are seemingly doing better than them, only to lose out
- Crypto Twitter can lead men to engage in damaging behaviour in order to try and emulate those they follow
Crypto Twitter is in danger of doing to men what Instagram and other social media platforms have done to women (and men) in recent years – negatively impacting their mental health by sowing seeds of personal dissatisfaction. Given that social media is consumed by both men and women, there must therefore be a part of social media that negatively impacts men in a similar way, tapping into the same areas of insecurity and worries over self-worth. Enter crypto Twitter.
Crypto Twitter Influencers Share Instagram Influencers’ DNA
Crypto Twitter is famous for individuals shilling their latest shitcoin to the high heavens, but it’s also famous for being a platform where the big fish can show off. We’ve all seen the posts, hundreds of them most likely, where a prominent trader on crypto Twitter boasts about his latest 100x gain on a Uniswap coin. He could keep his success to himself but he doesn’t – he broadcasts it all for the world to see. Why? Because he wants attention, appreciation, and the prestige that comes with his victory (and maybe to try and sell you a subscription to his private group).
This is no different from an Instagram influencer posing with a new dress they’ve just bought or showing off their newly painted nails – it’s all about clout and recognition. And it’s not just the posts themselves are similar in nature. The comments sections on both are often a mix of congratulatory platitudes and requests for ways in which to emulate the poster – what eyeliner is that, where did you get that coat, what coin will 10x next, what do you think of XXX coin right now? Both platforms are fostering a desire to emulate, to achieve what this random person has achieved through a quick fix, tapping into the natural insecurities of both genders.
The Dangers of Emulation
This desire to emulate others is dangerous. Research has shown that the ‘Instagram’ effect which has seen a whole generation of young women growing up with daily exposure to faces, bodies, and lives they will likely never have has left them with reduced self-worth and self-image and a surge in diagnoses of depression and anxiety.
Men tend to place their self worth (to varying degrees) in their financial muscle, and the neverending profit fest on crypto Twitter, some of which has been proven to be just as fake as a Photoshopped waistline, has been shown to cause some to act irrationally on the back of it. There is every danger that many men on crypto Twitter could be left with similar feelings of inadequacy and depression as they fritter away their trading pot chasing the gains they have seen posted online.
This is no idle suggestion – investors have committed suicide after getting themselves into a hole from crypto trading. In much the same way as a regular girl on the street is not going to become Kim Kardashian by buying her makeup, a new entrant to the crypto space isn’t going to match an experienced trader’s epic wins by leverage trading using his BitMEX referral link. Instead he’s going to bet the farm and lose it all. Except we don’t see the losers talked about on crypto Twitter – we only see the winners. Now why does that sound familiar?
Bombarded by Winners
Men may not be troubled by images of beauty in the same way women most definitely are, but they are troubled by posts about the wealth being made, perceptively easily, by other men on crypto Twitter. Let’s not forget, these men joined the crypto space in the hope of improving their financial situation, so they may already be in an emotionally vulnerable state.
To then be bombarded with posts on crypto Twitter about how much everyone else is making must be disheartening, especially when they decide to give it a go themselves and lose their hat – often ending up being unassuming bagholders of those they are trying to emulate.
Be Your Own Trader
There are many links between how men might react to the sometimes fictitious boasts of crypto Twitter traders and how women view pictures of airbrushed celebrities or opportunely filtered friends. The crypto Twitter pool is much smaller and so the impact will be reduced, but it is important to remember that those posting huge gains online are either able to do so because they got into a presale at the very early stages, or they are trained in the art of trading to a point where they know what they are doing.
It can be galling to see all your Twitter accounts boasting about win after win, but they are not you. It is more important to find your own trading style and develop it, rather than trying to hop from coin to coin on the whim of a crypto Twitter avatar who never posts his losses.
