Anti-social Thoughts on Social Media

Picture credit: Dries Augustyns on Unsplash

Dear Anand Kannan,

I am the Vice-president of Media Excellence with Social Media Trends International (SMTI). SMTI has been helping multi-national companies with their social media presence. I have over 15 years’ experience in social media campaigns. It is safe to say that I have a very good sense of best practices in social media messaging. I would like to set up some time to explore your current social media strategy and recommend next steps.

I hope you will take some time to think about this offer and suggest a time for us to talk.

Stay well.

Regards,

Warren Smith.

Dear Warren,

Thank you for your kind offer. Your timing is perfect. I have been struggling to understand the value and purpose of a social media presence. I did some further thinking after reading your mail.  I have several questions on my own use of social media and the company's.

Have you watched the movie Shrek? There is a memorable dialog in the movie. The authorities capture Shrek and Donkey. Donkey raises procedural questions on his capture: 'No one informed me that I have a right to remain silent! I have a right to remain silent". Shrek's response is "You have the right Donkey, what you lack is the capacity".  

Old wisdom says it's better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open the mouth and remove all doubt. On social media, we have the option of remaining silent, and we seem to be happy to waive the right. Does that worry you as an industry expert?

I have several questions about this. What makes normal people pick up political and religious arguments with perfect strangers? Do they really think the strangers are open for persuasion any more than they themselves are? Do they not realize that these strangers have firm opinions molded by biased media feed, just like they themselves do?

When they post to social media, do they trust their ability to communicate all the shades of grey within the expressiveness allowed by the text limits? I will admit that I have doubts as to my own ability. So, I think finding you is a lucky development.

When normal people share an article, do they just mean it as something that their friends might be interested, or something that should be interested in? Is the reader to think the sharer agrees 100% with the contents of the article? Or 90% or just greater than 50%?

Do they check the validity of every news item they forward? Do they think the selfies they share convey the message they are intended to convey? 

Does everyone worry about what percentage of their friends the shared news bit is relevant to? Do they worry that people with different national, linguistic, religious or political background may find the news item irrelevant? Should they worry? Is sharing a news item that is irrelevant to a friend as rude as talking in your ethnic language to your buddy knowing there are others who don't follow the language?

Same question as to profound thoughts. What if a number people don't understand what you write? Is it their problem or yours? What is the minimum percentage of the people do you think should understand what you write? Is 50% enough, or should it be 90%?

Does it bother you that we are the product and not the consumer in the social media platform? Do people know that they are training algorithms by using the platform? Do people worry that clicking on a right-wing (or left wing) news story that Facebook thinks you might be interested in may train the learning algorithm to skew their feeds? Do they care? Should they care?

I think social media, much like communism is a great idea in theory, but human flaws stop it from being achieving that perfection in practice. As an expert, do you worry that we are playing a part in stopping social media from being all that it can be? I think I am lucky in having found an expert like you to help figure this out.

Even before social media came along, they used to say untold suffering seldom is. Has social media further endangered untold suffering? 

Does anyone else think like this? Am I anti-social? Or does that all this mean I'm thinking too much? Or just that I need you more than others do?

I have more questions, but decided keep it brief. Please take some time to think about this. As you may have noticed, I have been struggling to verbalize my difficult questions, so it is perhaps best if we met in person so I can take you up on your offer. Please let me know if you block a day off in June for us to discuss the above points.

Thanks and regards,

Anand Kannan.