The Social Media Syndrome

It seems that over the past several years we’re basing our entire culture on social media. Who has the most likes, who has the most followers, and so on. If you think about it though, likes and followers don’t promise you anything other than just more of the same thing.

 

Every service today is trying to be a social media platform somehow, even when it has nothing to do with those services whatsoever. You’re logging into your bank and your bank offers you to connect with other “like-minded” account owners to share your investments and expenses, because, all things are better together, right? Or are they?

 

Imagine the following scenario. You’re sitting in a restaurant with your life partner, it’s your special date and you got something special planned for this evening just for the two of you. Alas, you posted it on social media and your friends know where you are. Some of them are not even your friends or might have feelings for your life partner and wish you were out of the picture. So, there you are, going through your lovely evening, while one of your so-called friends jumps in and decides he will spend the rest of the evening with you to keep you both company on your amazing occasion, oh and by the way, he called a few more friends of his because it’s an occasion that MUST be celebrated, together.

 

So now you’re stuck in a situation where you have to choose between spending time with your friends or your life partner and you have no idea how you got here or how to get out. Your life partner is already signaling you that she or he aren’t really happy with the situation.

 

Let’s take another situation. Going back to your bank account, your bank decides one day it’s a social media platform that connects you to others to share your bank activities. One day you decide to withdraw money from an ATM machine so the bank app offers you to post it, to show that you have money and your status is fine. You say “sure, why not, what harm can it possibly do?!” and you post it. Next thing you know one of your connections decides to find you, while you still have your wallet on, and “borrow” some of that well-earned money you just pulled out to pay for something they want. Do you think you’re going to think twice next time about the things you share online?

 

When you try to sell something online and you get many followers and likes for those products does it really necessarily say that your sales are high? Does it say that all of the people that “liked” your product will then go on to buy it?

 

No. All it ever tells you is that they will keep liking your products and following your posts but nothing tells you they will talk about it with their friends or recommend your product to someone else because they have so many other products they “liked” that they can’t even remember yours.

 

Basically, what these social media platforms gave you is the opportunity to create noise, a lot of it. Granted, more noise usually equals more sales but we’re so blinded by this noise that we’ve forgotten to pay attention to the quality of our products, to the quality of our services, and as a direct result most companies today have no clue how to provide customer service or even consider their customers while designing their products or services.

 

This is a real and very serious situation where people buy things they don’t need or things that are not even fully “cooked” (finished). A company today doesn’t need to finish their product and only then sell it, no! They’re just going to make enough noise on social media platforms, or make their own variation of one, and their sales will surely fly through the roof! And then when something goes wrong and the customers are left with a useless product, “No worries, we’ll develop another one that’s better but you’ll have to buy that one too”.

And forget about customer support, this will only get worse over the next few years.

 

There are far too many services today that see themselves as a social media platform when they’re not, but they’ll keep at it because it was the only business plan they were able to create to earn revenue out of their irrelevant idea. Don’t be mistaken, while they’re making money out of your social needs, you’re not making any. But make sure to keep on liking and following people and companies that don’t care about you at all, on 50 different social platforms because otherwise they’ll make sure to make you feel irrelevant.

 

This is the social media syndrome; we like and follow brands or companies or people just to feel a part of society, sometimes just to be noticed. Our voices don’t mean anything other than to the companies that are profiting from it. So, are we really part of society if our voices are not heard or are we only given the illusion as if what we like and follow worth something other than money for someone else? Don’t you feel like your voice is being hushed unless it’s for someone else’s profit?

 

It doesn’t stop there. My point is that we should also strive to make our contribution worth something, and a company’s product or service is a contribution, not just for the sake of making money but for the sake of actually connecting with people, for the sake of contribution to a better world. Try to connect with the people that buy your product or pay for your service. Try to connect with them and contribute to their welfare, solve their problems without creating new ones.

 

While as consumers, we shouldn’t haste to like and share everything before asking the right questions:

“Is this company doing the best it can for its customers?”

“Do they have a good customer support that I can rely on?”

“Do they care?”

“Is their product or service really necessary in this world or is it just another buzz no one needs?”

After all, your money is your time and your attention is the same, only your attention usually means money for someone else – make it count.

 

Maybe there’s a reason so many companies today are praying on this social need of our society but do we stop to think why? Why we need so much attention and people around us to support and hold us all the time? Is it maybe because society has told us over and over again throughout our lives that we need to be dependent on others for everything? Is it possible that this notion is even being supported just so you’ll be an easy pray and stay weak?

 

Thank you for reading.