Social Media is Going to Die Soon

I never thought I’d see the day when my social media usage plummeted to the point of almost being non-existent. Yet, here we are in 2022. I have been on it at least 75–90% less than any other year that I ever remember, by my estimation. I have to say, I don’t miss much about it at all.

To understand how wrapped up I’ve been on social media for the longest time, we’d have to take a time machine back to the year 2006. So fire up the DeLorean, grab Doc Brown, and let’s talk about how this fascination with social media even came to be. Time to hit 88 MPH.

I know the exact reason I started using social media. It was mid-2006 and I had just met a local mortgage lender named Corey. I forget how we connected originally, but I agreed to meet him for lunch after he invited me. I had recently had a disappointing transaction with my go-to lender who lost her professionalism with some buyer clients of mine.

Corey and I met and hit it off right away. During the course of our lunch, he asked me if I was on Myspace. I had no idea what that was at the time, so he explained how it worked, why it was good for networking with local people, and how he thought I’d do well with it, having a nice family and an adorable baby daughter.

I signed up right away and learned all of the ins and outs of the first social media website I’d ever used. It was actually pretty fun. I started adding all the local people I knew. Once I ran out of local friends to add, I’d request random people from my city and then nearby ones. Many of them accepted and I supplied them with inspirational quotes and funny status updates.

Turns out, I was good at social media. Corey was right about doing well with it. I amassed almost 19,000 friends on Myspace by the time I gave it up and made the switch to Facebook. I reached a high of about 4600 friends there over the years I’ve used it. I jumped on Instagram next and have over 2000 people there, as well.

Over the past seven or eight years, social media has been far less fun to use. For me, a large part of my decline in interest has come from the rise of Donald Trump and people being so ignorant online. It’s exhausting to read racist, bigoted, sexist, and homophobic comments as his behavior has emboldened these types of people to be more vocal about their ignorance.

I started using Facebook less and less for advertising my carpet cleaning and real estate businesses. I stopped commenting on ignorant people’s posts. I used to spend hours a week debating and arguing about the shitty things I saw constantly online. I needed a break from this, for my own mental health.

It was a relief to be on social media for far less time than I had been for over a dozen years or so. It also made me realize how repetitive most posts were and how unfulfilling reading the same old crap was. It was sort of like watching reruns on TV. At some point, you really get tired of the same old bullshit.

On social media, it was political posts that first became so repetitive. Then the entire religious right thing, the moral minority, the anti-abortion, anti-liberal rants and raves. People will complain about so many things on a platform where they don’t have to spew their nonsense face-to-face with anyone else.

Beyond those factors, it also became tiresome to see people complaining constantly. When I first started using social media in 2006, I constantly wanted to know what people were thinking. What they were up to. What they thought about everything. This grew old after about a decade. I no longer am interested in that.

Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy a few aspects of social media. It’s nice to see people posting pictures of their pets. That’s the main draw for me to even still check Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram at this stage. I like to see nice family outings. Inspirational, encouraging posts are also welcome. Funny memes still make me laugh. It’s also useful to spread the word to my larger-than-average following about my writing.

That’s the biggest reason I’ve been on social media for far less time in 2022 than any other year. Medium has taken over almost all of my social media time. I’m writing a lot of new material, drafts, and ideas to ensure I post at least one solid blog each day. Most of the time, I’m aiming to post two in a day.

When I’m not spending time on actual writing, I’m answering all of the comments I get from my articles. I very much enjoy interacting and bantering back and forth with a kinder, more intelligent set of people. I’ve been saying for a while now that Medium is somewhat like social media, but for smarter people.

This has been a welcome break from Facebook and other social media sites where it’s been more and more frustrating to tolerate the same ignorant things I’ve been seeing since 2006. I appreciate how awesome almost everyone here on Medium has been this year. You guys make this so much fun, I appreciate everyone who contributes positive vibes to our writer’s community.

Over the past few years, I’ve noticed how little time my children spend on social media. They prefer to chat and keep in touch with their friends through online gaming and message-board-style websites like Discord and Reddit. They never post on Facebook, and rarely use anything else other than Instagram a little bit.

This leads me to believe that social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are currently in a declining state. While some of us still use those sites daily and post regularly, I’ve noticed that many of my online friends are posting far less than they did a few years ago. Perhaps we’re running out of ideas or losing interest in being so social anymore.

I know I am. I’ve been far happier using Medium and Vocal daily than wasting so much time on social media. Being able to put out entertaining and/or useful writing into the world is far more fun and fulfilling. Again, hanging out with more like-minded intelligent people here has been more nourishing for my soul.

It is not unprecedented to see a social media juggernaut fall into decline and end up on life support. Look at what happened to Myspace. They were the only game in town and the first giant social media website.

Facebook crushed them within five years of its launch date. Myspace once lost over half of its active users in a single year. This can and likely will happen again to the other social media websites. I sense their demise is imminent.

I’ll still post a bit on social media while it’s still alive and use it to further my writer’s journey. I do truly care about a number of social media friends and contacts. I just wish they’d join the party over here on Medium and read our stuff, instead. &:^)