Remember when Steve ran into Sergeant Drake Savage while driving through the streets of Al Donnelly's home town looking for his brother? After he hit him with his car, (unfortunately) he reached into his pocket and said, "here, I've got something for ya." Steve's souvenir, was in fact, his middle finger showing it to him as he sped off around the corner...I feel the same way about social media lately, and just as Steve realized as he turned the corner into stand-still traffic, we are all stuck here, but that won't stop me from telling the platforms I've got the a similar souvenir for them.
Because now more than ever, in my experience, the social media platforms are deliberately distracting us from expressing ourselves creatively by molding our views of expression around their set of rules and guidelines.
"You can say and do what you want, you just have to do it this way, otherwise we won't show anyone." I can picture the algorithm telling me this while simultaneously getting a DM from a LinkedIn coach ready to share the secret with me on engagement
The unfortunate part about creating content is that everyone has something they need or want to say, their own way they need to express it, and something they need (or at least want to feel).
Now we seem distracted by conditioning that tells us in order to have "reach," your video needs to be vertical, it needs to be under 90 seconds, and obviously follow the latest trend. It tells us that your captions need to be perfectly formatted, your content needs to be niche, and for any of this to actually 'work' for you, all of your time needs to be allocated to the platform.
The irony is that if you're using social media for sales prospecting, marketing leads, recruiting, or to sell a product or service directly, you already know that it's the number of impressions or views that they've used as the metric for success. Hence the word, 'work' in quotations. However great the engagement may seem, it's likely not at all what you want. What you really want, which is a lead, or a sale, you've become too afraid to actually admit on social media because of another form of social conditioning that has trained you to believe that speaking your opinion will get you "shadow-banned."
Then, to top all of this off, (as if what I said is not already enough), we are being judged for using AI on platforms that encourage us to "rewrite using AI." Want even more irony, the people judging us for AI slop are judging us while using AI.
Social media used to be social, at least that's what we were led to believe, but we all knew a long time ago what these platforms actually want to do, according to Mark Zuckerberg testifying in front of a shocked Congress, "we sell ads."
My point is, we know, and although we may seem naive most of the time, maybe it makes sense to focus on selling them then, instead of tricking us into believing "we are the customer," when clearly "we are the product."
I'm no spokesperson for the platform, and I certainly am not a rocket scientist the platform might sell more ads if it stopped deliberately trying to influence our behavior and creativity and afforded us with our God-given right to be independent critical thinkers again. If we are being honest about our beliefs, our opinions, our expression, the engagement wouldn't mean squat, because everyone engaging in it would be "real." Instead of showing up there to make themselves appear to look a certain way to others.
I write this and I feel this because I'm experiencing it, and no, I'm not just going to "quit" social media because of it. Nope, just not going to play a game anymore, maybe it's because I'm 45 now, and incapable of following bullshit, or maybe it's because we're taking advice and influence from a group of people we would never enlist for personal advice.
In case you're wondering, where is my content on LinkedIn lately (don't worry, you're not)?" Well, as a matter of fact, it's only on my company page now, or an article like this, because I don't feel LinkedIn or any social media platform deserves my time and attention the way it used to, and quite frankly, I don't believe they deserve yours.
I wrote about this idea months ago, that "Thirty Likes is the New 100 Likes," and I meant it. If there's more engagement now, it doesn't mean the content is good, it adds value, or has any particular substance or meaning, but if there's low engagement, sure, it may be "bad," but most likely will, at the very least, be real.
If we want to be more social, meaning to sincerly engage with one another, maybe this downfall as I will confidently refer to it as will force us back out to the bar after work to meet for a drink, or maybe it's as simple as picking up the phone again for a friendly conversation, or if we need to, some discourse.
Thanks,
Derek
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." ~Matthew 7: 13-14
I know it may seem like I'm a cynic, and the truth is...I am but I take solace in owning my cynicism. Deep down, I'm a man who believes in something meaningful, something purposeful, and lately more than ever, I believe in being more transparent about the topics that I immerse myself in every day of my career. Not because I want to stand out, but because I don't think I'm alone, and the more of us who feel comfortable enough to share how we feel, maybe we can make a positive impact on someone.
