Social Media Isn’t Social

I’ve had people ask me if I’m on [insert social media platform of the week] and my response is usually “no”.

Back when Twitter, Facebook and other platforms first emerged, they were great ways to communicate directly with people who loved your work. It was an incredibly powerful tool for creators without many resources to spread the word about their latest projects.

Then, like everything else, the suits stepped in and suddenly it wasn’t good enough to allow users to use the platforms for what they were intended. Now it was about squeezing every lousy cent they could out of it by any means necessary. This push for maximum profit has made them absolutely worthless.

The only thing modern platforms care about is numbers. Pump up the “user count” so advertisers spend more money. Manipulate feeds with rage bait engagement to keep them using the app instead of showing them what they wanted. Suppress any user who attempts to get in the way of this herding by having the audacity to put a link to their new song, book, etc. in a post.

I know it seems like “old man yells at cloud” but I’m dead serious when I say the internet is not what it was 15 years ago. If studies are to be believed, roughly 70% of internet traffic is bots now with the remaining being either utilitarian users (people who only log on to perform a task) or people who just constantly shift around grazing, never stopping long enough to engage with anything. If you’ve managed to get this far, congratulations, you’re an increasingly rare type of internet user.

So would I love to use social media to promote the studio and my works? Of course. But in this day and age, I’ve yet to find a platform that isn’t a waste of time and that’s why I simply don’t bother anymore with “social” media.