[OPINION] Not Everything has to be Social

With Spotify announcing that it would be implementing a messaging feature, I wanted to share an opinion I've held for some time now: not every app has to be social media. I'm not referring to regular social media services; I'm talking about apps that serve some other purpose that later implement social media features, or never really needed them to begin with.

Why can't people just listen to music? Is that not enough? Why do they need friends and followers on a music-listening app? Even Duolingo is social now, it has followers and a feed and shit like that. Why can't people just do things for themselves?

You can't take Spanish lessons without your friends seeing your progress? Grow up. There's some poor bastard out there whose friends follow him on all of his accounts for every app, so they can see not only what he's doing in his day-to-day life but also what music he listens to, what movies he watches, what job promotions he gets, his location, what languages he's learning, what books he's reading, etc. People lead lives like this and still wonder why they feel like a freak all the time.

It's because you no longer live for yourself or your own enjoyment, you live under constant surveillance while also trying to maintain whatever skewed perception you want your peers to have of you. "It's fun!!! It's not that deep, brooooo. Let people enjoy things.." These companies implement these types of features solely to keep people hooked and make more money off their attention. Do things for yourself.