a.k.a. V.J.

“Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.”

– Variously attributed

The internet was abuzz today with articles and snarky commentary about Elon Musk rebranding Twitter to something called “X.” There have also been recent stories about how Mark Zuckerberg’s Threads platform garnered a lot of initial interest but doesn’t appear to be catching on. Seeing all these stories started me thinking about how so much of the reportage and commentary on social media is framed in the context of the personalities of tech billionaires. It seems to me that approach misses the point.

Social media has a huge impact on our lives in spheres such as economics, politics, education, international relations, free speech, propaganda, cognitive development in children, mental health, and beyond. Given the weighty issues in play, why does so much of the discourse come down to a referendum on the individual personalities of a couple of publicity hounds? Would social media be less of a net negative on society’s happiness and well-being if different people were at the helm of the most high-profile platforms? I’d argue no.

This post is not a defense of Musk or Zuckerberg; it’s only a reminder that their personal flaws are not the main reasons behind social media’s shortcomings. Twitter was a toxic cesspool long before Elon Musk took it over. To make the narrative all about his megalomania only distracts from a broader interrogation we should all be undertaking about the role of social media in our lives.

My own relationship with social media might be described as “rocky.” I am a long-time user and have accounts on most of the major platforms, but for as long as I’ve been on social media, I’ve wished that I could cut it out of my life. As nice as it would be to quit the whole thing cold turkey, I don’t think it would be realistic for a practitioner and teacher of marketing to do so. I have to maintain a presence on it and stay abreast of the major developments in terms of marketing applications. For me, social media is a necessary evil.

Know that I do not use the word “evil” lightly or as hyperbole. A few years ago, a student asked me some advice about marketing a new business idea that he had. I told him that Instagram seemed like a good platform to publicize his new brand. He told me that he stayed away from Instagram because using it in the past put him in a dark place. A number of other students have told me that they thought heavy social-media use had a very negative effect on the mental and emotional well-being of their generation. Add to that the facts that social media has radicalized our politics on both ends of the spectrum, served as a breeding ground for conspiracy theories, and generally increased the amount of vitriol in our daily lives, and it’s very hard for me to think that there are benefits to social media that outweigh all of the bad.

I’m sure the disgruntled Twitter/X users and the people who get repeatedly thrown into “Facebook Jail” will continue to believe that the main problem with social media is that it is run by a few bad people. I posit that the real problem is that it makes the multitudes of good people all a little worse.