TOPSHOT - Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg testifies during a US House Committee on Energy ... [+]
Facebook and Twitter had a good run.
Birthed in the dorm rooms of Harvard by Mark Zuckerberg, catalyzed on the whiteboards of Twitter back in the early days, the entire concept of the early social media firms hinged on massive social connection.
Let me give you just one example.
Recently, I posted a family picture on Facebook. A professor of mine from years ago made a nice comment and suggested that I can now call her Linda and not by her formal title.
That’s nice, right? Social media made that possible. Facebook and Twitter paved the road. I’m not sure how she would have found the photo otherwise, since she probably doesn’t have my email. For the last decade or more, we’ve all enjoyed a wonderful period of personal connections with friends, family, and acquaintances.
Sadly, the thunderclouds emerged on the horizon years ago, hinting at the coming apocalypse. Facebook was allowing firms to capture our personal information and use it for political gain. Twitter decided to allow trolls to invade unabated and the company also shut down accounts instead of figuring out how to throttle them.
Lately, what started as a mere thunderstorm is now a massive conflagration.
I wrote recently about how Twitter is flailing around like a ragdoll right now, perhaps because of an intentional death-wish. Facebook (through parent company Meta) is a mess. Mark Zuckerberg decided that VR would be the future of social media as we know it, but forgot to check with anyone about that.
What’s really going on?
For starters, we’re a little bored. These apps have not done anything dramatically new in years, and both Mark Zuckerberg and now Elon Musk know that. We post and post and post again, but it’s boring. On Instagram, we’ve seen pictures of someone with their arms outstretched in front of a mountain vista about 5,000 times; the mountain hasn’t changed.
At one time, having a phone in your hand and snapping a photo seemed novel and even exciting. Not so much anymore. Zuckerberg recognized the only way to innovate with social media is to move into another medium entirely.
On Twitter, reading the innermost thoughts of a celebrity seemed like we were in the luxury condo with them, swapping stories over a raging fire.
I’m not sure we really care that much anymore. Digital transmissions emanate into and out of every corner of our lives, by email and text, on apps like SnapChat and emerging apps like BeReal. Maybe the question to ask now is can we please not hear about celebrities so often? Can we shut down some of the digital end points?
Social media noise has taken over our lives.
What this might mean, finally — after all of this time — is that the powerhouses of social media have simply lost their stronghold (or perhaps, stranglehold).
We are now connecting in so many ways that the idea of using two or three main apps all day doesn’t make as much sense. Mission accomplished, in some ways. We’re connecting on digital platforms more than ever. We’re overly connected.
Of course, we’ve been predicting the death of social media since the beginning. This time, it’s closer to an actual extinction event, at least for some of the early innovators. Meta is on a slow path toward destruction. Twitter is in self-destruct mode.
I follow the advice of productivity expert Jordan Raynor and delete Instagram from my phone until I need to use it again. I rarely post on Facebook if at all. The writing is on the wall, and it’s loud and clear.
The colossus is dead.
Social media needs to evolve.
I do hope there is something better on the horizon. Facebook and Twitter are now the old giants. Get ready for the new giants. Are you ready?
