Some might not want to admit it, because there are those things that over the years become second nature, but we just might be seeing the end of what’s termed “social media”.
Remember MySpace? Gone back and watched “The Social Network” again?
Other than perhaps noticing Dakota Johnson in it, there are the plot holes and potholes and calculated opportunism of the team- and it wasn’t one person- who gave the world Facebook.
Facebook was quickly embraced in a fast food world, and whether Pandora’s Box or not, millions and millions were sold on sharing and scrolling, posting content for free, speaking Emoji and, well, creating an online world where many are “living” or visiting often because nearly everyone else was and is.
Maybe it was fun while it was fun or looking as if leading somewhere.
Personally speaking, I think John Lennon wrote about the neediness of what morphed into social media in “Nowhere Man” whereas Paul McCartney hinted at the same thing on “Eleanor Rigby” and the line, “Where do all the lonely people go”.
There’s also how “We all live in a Yellow Submarine” and “Glass Onion”.
After almost two decades of algorithmic “data”and a numbers game, and how, overnight, there were well paid social media experts, “influencers”, KOLs, and the often meaningless KPIs, Facebook, especially, is spluttering.
There also appears to be an Instachange with many moving on as the online fame game and numbers have not worked as there are no tangible results.
To put it more simply, it’s become TikTok desperately boring.
For me and the handful of people I respect and who have never really been part of the online community, social media might still be a necessary evil in marketing and self promotion, but it’s also seen as lowering standards, especially standards in genuine creativity.
The needle is not moving much anymore and the “information “ is usually click bait and questionable.
With governments having finally woken up- pun intended- to the manipulation and easy access to places like “the dark web” that preys on fragile minds, and which came into the light during those lockdown years, it’s now about putting the evil genie back into the bottle.
Good luck.
It’s all out there- everything and more and way too much personal information which can be, and is being used to feed a voracious appetite for control and greed and dreams that quickly lead to depression and nightmares.
The online world isn’t pretty and it’s not going away anytime soon or might even ever disappear.
It’s an okay place to visit and might be an effective marketing tool. Maybe.
Or it could be a turn off that’s quickly fading to black.
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