The Social Media Utopia That Never Happened

A gap in our understanding of structural-hole theory has led to predictable results.

Stephen Cooper from Getty Images

The advent of social media has definitely given a soundboard to anyone who aspires to be a self-help guru. However, the original promise of the new technology was that social-economic gaps would be forever closed and that people around the world would be brought together in ways never before seen in all of human history.

Instead, most people have primarily used social media to do what they have always done; complain, talk about themselves, and find porn.

Rather than allow for a prosperous exchange of ideas, social media has instead allowed people to complain to others who previously did not know that they existed, and oftentimes subsequently wish that they did not.

But this is not what was promised. What was promised was a world-changing technology that would allow for everyone to find their place in the world, wherever it was.

As an example, LinkedIn, as it was envisioned, was supposed to allow for the mechanic in Missouri who specializes in vintage Chrysler cars to find the custom car shop in Germany that needs that skill but can’t find a person with that exact skill anywhere in Europe. Social media was supposed to allow these…