Social media’s addictive attention deficit disorders

As a 23 year old working at a media company in New York, it is hard to envision life without social media. The majority of my life I have felt connected to anyone I wanted to, and those who I didn’t want to be as well. Looking back, I started this connective journey with a low barrier to entry: signing up for Facebook. Back in 2009, I created a Facebook account with just my name. I friended people from my school and would participate in what seems like an old fad… wall posts. In the pre-messenger days, wall posting was truly an actual means of communicating with your friends. In today’s world, it seems odd to post private questions on such a public space, but back then it was a no brainer.

Fast forward a decade, and my social media usage habits could not be more different. I’m not sure the last time I posted on Facebook- or even checked it for that matter. I deleted my Twitter account because it seemed to be flooded with misinformation, and now I use Instagram as my main point of contact with “the outside world”. Photos seem like a quicker understanding of how my “friends” are, and ability to make my own account private gives me a sense of control in the public space. Instagram, as the 3rd most used platform in 2019, (Pew Research) has definitely grown with the young millennial population- abiding to our needs and wants, and keeping us on the platform, unlike Facebook.

Since the start of the global pandemic, I’ve succumbed to peer pressure and downloaded an app I never thought I would: Tok Tok. This new video focused app is a mixture of Vine (one of the greatest), music incorporations, and intense algorithmic data. I never believed I would follow these “content creators” who became instantly famous on this video platform. Some of the top creators have upwards of 45million followers- forty five million or more people. That is truly an insane number. I find myself on this app infatuated by their followings, and wondering how such short, almost silly videos can gain such viral traction.

But, I do believe that is the power of social media. The ability to grab a user’s undivided attention, keep them reeled in, and grow their attention to the apps. Professionally, social media can either be a tool used to understand brands, trends, and content more- or it could be a distracting force that leads brands to be “where there consumers are” instead of naturally embedding their consumers with content they want to see. It’s one thing to work your way into the circle at the party, but to show up uninvited and ask for a drink is another level.

I believe with the data gatherings and more studies around social media habits, people and brands will be able to find their own audiences where they want to be. It is no shock to me that the older generation stick with Facebook. It is the easiest platform to use, with the most capabilities- connecting to old friends, sharing photos, commenting on wall posts, etc. Whereas the newer apps- like Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok- are using more algorithms to have content of what their audience wants to see, without asking for it.

Overall, social media is at an interesting point in its lifecycle. These apps can continue to grow with the current audiences they have acclaimed, or they can attempt to create newer features to capture the audiences they want- will Facebook do something new to get younger people back on? Will TikTok finance older creators to post content and grow that following? Will Instagram stop prioritizing “heavy likes” and disregard that feature for people to feel less numerically valued? There are so many ways these apps can appeal to larger audiences, all that matters is how much they want to give away completely.