“Social Media is for Idiots”
An argument that’s difficult to defend, yet difficult to stamp out.
Practically since the dawn of social media there have been people who consider themselves to be above the use of it. You’ve probably met at least one of these people in your lifetime; they generally consider social media to be “a waste of time”, and like to make it abundantly clear that they fill their spare time with more intellectual pastimes, like reading or listening to the afternoon quiz on Radio 4. There’s a good chance they’re also against reality TV, video games, and any fiction that was written this side of the 1950s. I’m obviously stereotyping, but that’s what this article is about. Because those kinds of people (regardless of their individual quirks, likes, or dislikes) are the kinds of people who think that social media is for idiots.
It’s difficult to justify this viewpoint for literally countless reasons, but let’s take a quick look at the argument from their point of view. Because, to be fair, I have spent more hours than I want to think about looking at memes on Facebook when I should have been writing or working, and this is probably the biggest argument against social media users because it really can be a time-suck. You look at your phone for five minutes on your lunch break and suddenly you’re two hours deep on some meme page called “Woken Memes For Acid Teens” (that’s a real page on Facebook by the way). So, I get it. Because why would we be looking at derivative garbage like that on the internet when we could be feeding our minds with an inaccessible, eight-hundred-page Dickens novel (I’m not slamming Dickens also, I’m just making a point).
That’s probably my first point. Social media is accessible. It takes you a few minutes, hours, days to get used to its functions (depending on your familiarity with technology), and then you’re away. Most sites give you the ability to tailor what you see and how often, and generally present it upfront so you know exactly where you stand; Twitter gives you some recommendations on who you should follow based on your interests, Facebook suggests pages to you that match up with what you’ve liked previously, and even Medium follows the trend, asking you what your fields of interests are and then showing you good publications to read and keep up to date on. Even if your interest is only in memes, you can have a webpage essentially dedicated to your particular memes of interest (as ludicrous as that sounds). Accessibility is key, and that doesn’t make social media “for idiots”, it just makes it convenient in an age where people have less free time than ever.
Beyond the convenience of the form, you should also consider the power social media can have. Without drawing too many eye rolls or groans from the audience, I do have to, at this point, mention Donald Trump. Because yes, he is controversial and you might strongly disagree with his policies or his personal beliefs (as, indeed, I do). Yet the man’s presidential campaign was practically won for him through guerrilla warfare on social media, and he continues to announce policy as much on social media as he does in press releases. Remember that less than six months ago he threw the entire army into disarray by announcing on Twitter, with no prior public discussion or due political process, that transgender soldiers would no longer be permitted to serve in the US armed forces. And even though no law was officially passed at the time of the statement, people listened and panicked because of the power Trump has on social media. Because it’s a powerful form in and of itself. Millions of people accessed and shared this tweet before Trump’s PR team had time to blink, and reactions were aplenty. Trump might be incredibly polarising, but he’s no idiot when it comes to the affect his social media can have.
Finally, there’s the fact that most people in developed countries have social media now, today. In fact, Statista estimates 2.46 billion people have access to social media in 2017, meaning almost a third of the entire population of the planet are using it. You can have your opinions on the form but it’s a bold statement indeed to claim that a third of the world’s population are idiots because they have access to a website. I haven’t even covered half my arguments for social media here: that people use social media for keeping in touch with long-distance friends or family; that businesses advertise themselves and respond to customer queries and complaints with it; that it generates thousands of jobs, from web design to social media management; or that it can be used to organise events, including anything from fundraisers to concerts. It’s a powerhouse of a form, and while it’s imperfect, it’s still on the rise in 2017. Like it or not, social media is not for idiots. Social media is online innovation incarnate.
With thanks to Leah Hockley.
