I’ve been sitting on this post for a while, mostly trying to figure out why I care about this subject so much. I spend a lot of time online and understand many of the nefarious techniques used to convince someone to buy a dodgy product or service. Yet, those always seemed far less damaging than what social media outlets produce.

Perhaps, as an idealist, I just want what’s best for the world…and this isn’t it. Perhaps, as a contrarian or non-conformist, I simply dislike the overwhelming popularity of these platforms. But most likely, as a father, I’m deeply concerned about their impact. A recent reminder of that negative impact prompted me to pick up this draft again.

As a digital marketer, I’ve always been an early adopter of new technology and marketing channels. Naturally, social media platforms were high on that list in the early days. As the owner of a digital marketing agency, I saw social media as an essential business tool; as an individual, I found it an intriguing reflection of modern life.

But fairly early on, there was something that I found uneasy when it came to these social media platforms that while I loved the connection to friends past and present, there was always something that didn’t sit right. I knew how elements of digital marketing worked (lack of privacy, behavior tracking and a healthy disdain for dodgy online advertising tactics) and was fine embracing the good and overlooking the bad and ugly especially when it came to search engines which seemed somewhat harmless to me, but social media gave me pause. I found myself completely rejecting it. It could be a cesspool, reflecting all that is wrong with people, with society. In real life, I choose to surround myself with good, positive people so why would I choose otherwise online? On Facebook we started to see fewer posts by our friends and more clickbait headlines. Scroll through videos and you’re greeted by pranksters or brawlers or misogynistic, horrible men who I would never in a million years choose to spend any time with. Sure, the algorithm learns what we like and what we don’t like but it still throws in plenty of drivel along the way to make me wonder why I am there in the first place. So I decided not to be and that our company would not actively engage our services in any aspect of social media marketing.

Interesting move for a digital marketing company. Perhaps. Not to mention we were and are probably leaving money on the table but ultimately it meant that we were able to focus on our core offering of Technical SEO and web development without distraction and without having to force my team into such a toxic environment. There is no shortage of studies that suggest social media is a significant contributor to mental health issues which certainly validates our position. A new book “Careless People” by Sarah Wynn-Williams is an eye-opener from an inside Facebook perspective. And while some may argue that by choosing to completely ignore these platforms, we’re essentially sticking our heads in the sand, completely ignoring what may actually be a useful and positive environment and we could in fact learn how to best utilize to our benefit. Maybe, but I’m not convinced.

How to Manage Social Media?

Safe to say I don’t really have a solution here. On a personal level I’m able to completely avoid it but even then there are times that I’m missing out on connections to friends and family. So I jump on and after the brief excitement of checking out some activities my mates are up to, the feed ends up driving me crazy so off I go again. I’m trying a few things:

• Time blocks – on a personal level, using time blocks to check my feeds and keeping it within that timeframe has been reasonably effective. Perhaps 15 mins before work. 15 mins after lunch. 15 mins at the end of the day.
• Training Your Feeds – the algorithm has an agenda and it’s not often in your best interests but there are ways to actively retrain it. You can switch to chronological so it only shows the latest. You can tell it which posts you are not interested in. You can avoid pausing on or engaging in posts you dislike.
• Work-only – certainly there are benefits on a professional level with engaging in social so limiting time spent on these channels for work can be a workaround. Just be careful of time creep.

So perhaps avoiding Social Media isn’t the best way to deal with it. Certainly on a professional level, we’ve been able to keep it off our list of services, happy to partner with agencies that do it (preferably those who do it well) or leave it to clients to manage.

Don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook or X for not very much activity or information;)