Social Media Losing Personal ConnectionsSMU SMC

As advertisers and celebrities have flooded social media, users have lost an important connection online: their family and friends. Keeping up with people users actually know on social media has withered away as users turn to following bigger than life stars and economic powerhouses with prominent brands. Celebrities and company’s strategic advertisements peak more interests now than your cousin’s wedding pictures or high school teacher’s family reunion.

Friend and family connections are the foundation on which social media was built. It was created with the intention of allowing people to connect and keep in touch with other people. Now, social media has developed into an advertising and branding juggernaut that professionals must manage. However, this trend is important for communication professionals to note. The demographic of social media users has grown and changed, and companies are targeting different platforms in new ways to reach their target audience. Here are three reasons why social media has turned into a marketing tool instead of a social networking mechanism amongst friends:

Advertisers have infiltrated every platform with sponsored ads. It is impossible to scroll through any social media feed without crossing over at least one company-sponsored advertisement like the Ben and Jerry’s example to the left. Instead of seeing content from personal friends or family members that you follow on Instagram, a carefully thought out marketing campaign is imposed on you.
Celebrity culture has invaded social media. Users can see into their favorite star’s personal life as well as their public persona, and making them even more alluring. The relationship between fans and celebrities may seem more personal through the advent of social media, but the exchange between people who actually know and have connections with each other diminishes. The users’ focus is on what their favorite celebrity is eating for lunch today instead of being fully committed to the content that their friends and family put out into the social media universe.
There is a transition occurring away from traditional media outlets like TV, radio, and print and toward social media. Because of this, people are getting their news and entertainment from other sources. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram now serve as a source for videos, articles and photos that meet users’ needs. Therefore, people aren’t seeing ads on traditional TV anymore, instead advertisers have to meet their audience where they’re at, and that’s online now. Even through streaming services offered by network television outlets, people are subjected to sit through ads that are interactive or different than those on TV. This time spent on social media sites for news and entertainment purposes instead of personal social networking connections perpetuates the impersonal nature social media has evolved into.

Social media was created to connect people to other people. Now its focus has shifted to allowing companies and pop culture to latch onto users’ attention spans and take their thoughts away from people they know and toward calculated corporate agendas.

For more information, check out the following links:

http://www.recode.net/2017/1/23/14205686/instagram-product-launch-feature-kevin-systrom-weil

http://fortune.com/2016/12/05/social-media-ad-spending-newspapers-zenith-2020/