Human beings are rather narcissistic creatures.

We like to believe that we are sophisticated. Cultivated. Intelligent. We have philosophy, science, literature, universities and technology. We build cities, send spacecraft into the universe and develop machines that can think alongside us.

We certainly consider ourselves far more advanced than animals because, after all, we have these magnificent brains.

But sometimes I look at humanity and wonder whether we are actually using them.

For centuries, human status was largely connected to wealth, power and position. The bigger the house, the more land you owned, the more impressive your title, the more important you supposedly were.

Then came the internet.

And eventually social media.

Suddenly another currency became almost as important as money.

Who has the most followers? Who gets the most likes? Who is verified? Who goes viral? Who has the biggest audience?

And perhaps most importantly, who has the biggest ego?

TikTok, Instagram and other platforms have turned parts of society into one enormous competition for attention. People film themselves eating breakfast. Couples carefully present their supposedly perfect relationships. Children become content before they are old enough to understand what content even means. People alter their faces until their lips resemble the sponge hanging in my shower.

Everything is amazing.

Everything is incredible.

And when super is no longer super enough, it becomes super, super amazing.

Behind all this manufactured excitement sits a very primitive human desire.

The strange thing is that this phenomenon is no longer limited to influencers.

It has entered advocacy.

It has entered journalism.

And most dangerously, it has entered politics.

I see it in the pro Israel advocacy world too.

Advocacy should be about Israel. It should be about defending historical truth, exposing misinformation, fighting antisemitism and explaining a complicated country to people who increasingly receive their knowledge through thirty second........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)