The number of thumbs-ups on a Facebook post or Tweet was a representation of how many people it reached, how many people were inspired to click a button by your little self-promotional bulletin or opinionated missive. But was that a representation of a post’s quality? Should we evaluate ourselves by this arbitrary new metric? The questions loomed, but given the utility of new social networks and the instant reach they afforded, it was easy to ignore such quandaries and just keep posting.
