Reading between the social media lines
THURSDAY, March 22, 2012 is the day that a light bulb was switched on for me. As I sat at the breakfast table on that morning, my fourteen-year-old daughter joined me for our cereal and toast. She asked if I had heard the big news. Having just returned from my morning bike ride where not a lot of news flashes are announced, I admitted I hadn’t – and also thought that the big news may be as important as who was about to leave Home and Away.
My daughter announced that Malcom Naden, who had been on the run from the law for seven years and was one of Australis’s most wanted men, had been captured. This was indeed big news so I turned on the television to see.
After going through several stations, I asked my daughter which channel she had seen the news on. “Facebook!” was the reply.
For the next five minutes I gave my daughter the standard speech about not believing everything you read on the Internet and make sure you hear news from a trusted source such as a trained journalist and all the normal parental advice to arm a child with the tools to go into the big wide world.
I am sure all my daughter heard was blah, blah, blah. Having forgotten about the topic I went about my morning until sometime later when I heard ‘breaking news’ announced on one of the morning shows. “Malcolm Naden has just been captured,” announced the host, along with some sketchy details.
My daughter remained silent but the look she gave me said it all.
That was the day that I realised social media was not just a social tool but a source of current information that people were relying on in their daily lives. Maybe it was time to treat this fad a little more seriously.
There are many sites and organisations that claim they started the concept of social media sites and even though Classmates.com has a strong case from its launch in 1995, I am going to award the tag to the short-lived site called Sixdegrees.com.
The concept was based on the hypothesis that any person in the world is only six steps away, by way of introduction, from any other person in the world. What better way to explore this concept than via the Internet?
Although Sixdegrees.com only lasted for four years after its launch in 1997, it triggered many other sites such as Makeoutclub; Cyworld; Friendster; Myspace; Linkedin; Flickr and many more. Then came the one.
It is hard to believe that Facebook only launched in February 2004. In just over twelve years, Facebook has built a community of almost 1.3 billion users and is undoubtedly the most influential social media site in the world today.
Twitter is only ten years old and has almost 700 million users and to show it is not completely a closed shop, Instagram only launched in 2010 and already has 300 million people using the site.
The downfall of Sixdegrees. com has been the success of the largest social media sites. One of the complaints about Sixdegrees.com was that they strongly encouraged existing users to invite other users and many users saw their inbox filling with spam from the company. Membership drives gave the site a commercial feel rather than organically growing a network of users. That seems mild compared to Facebook which is now a company worth US$50 billion with some multinationals spending US$100 million a year on Facebook advertising.
And that brings up a significant point. Almost half of the users of Facebook (and probably most social media sites) are in the 18 to 34 age bracket. With the Internet starting in Australia in June 1989, anyone in this age bracket has grown up with the Web just being a normal part of their lives.
They are tech-savvy but their youth and trust in social media makes them prone to the influence of large corporations who are increasingly using their space to advertise in.
Studies have been conducted that show the use of social media and celebrity endorsements can have a negative influence on the users of social media sites, with increased alcohol consumption cited as a major negative of this style of advertising.
When one of the 15 million P.diddy social media followers sees him celebrating with Ciroc Vodka, they are not immediately aware that he has a US$100 million deal with the company to be their brand ambassador.
This is just one of many deals that celebrity influencers are cashing in on. The likes of Katy Perry; Justin Bieber; Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga all have more than 50 million Twitter followers and can increase sales of a product with a single tweet.
The type of trust my daughter showed in 2012 in the news that was delivered via social media is even stronger with users today and the lines of information and advertising are increasingly becoming blurred.
I can’t help but wonder whether the increasing integration of advertising in social media sites draws away from the original purpose of social media which is open, trusted and honest online communication among individuals.
When one of the 15 million P.diddy social media followers sees him celebrating with Ciroc Vodka, they are not immediately aware that he has a US$100 million deal with the company to be their brand ambassador.