I recently saw a headline that said that Gen X and Gen Z feel like social media is damaging them. I paused after I read it and then I skimmed the article and decided it was silly because social media is optional.
I know, I know, you would argue that social media is required in today's day and age. But it's not.
I used social media for quite a while. I used it to expand my church's reach. I offered online groups and encouraged community through that venue.
I did that for several years and it was quite successful. But as I watched each different social media platform come online and get invested with marketers and then watched the users that were infected with the idea of earning money off of their friends and people that they didn't know start marketing themselves, I just had to shake my head.
It's so sad to watch. People say you have to be on social media in order to be connected. And I disagree If you work the phone and you work your text messages and you reach out to people outside of your circle you can connect with lots of people just fine. Social media makes it convenient, and then In that convenience the marketers have your attention.
Oh, by the way, here's an ad for a product that you may not necessarily support nor be interested in but we're gonna show it anyways. And in amongst your posts. Anybody looking at your stuff gets distracted and off we go.
They've won the attention game.
Anyways, I'm not against social media. I still use it on a very limited basis. I try not to post about products or anything. I just share. me. And that's what I feel like social media was all about until the marketers got involved and everybody felt like they had to emulate the marketers and all that.
Oh, well.
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