The Four Horsemen of the Social Media Apocalypse
And How They Affect us All
Envision a society where addiction is rampant.
In this society, people trade popularity and physical attractiveness for likes and followers.
A society where attention has become the gold standard.
This is the bleakness that we face as we step into the mid-2020s.
These are the four horsemen of the social media apocalypse.
TikTok: The Horseman of Time
If you don’t believe this app eats time up like Halloween candy, TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, states otherwise.
In 2020, people spent 440 minutes a month.
In 2023, people spent 2,700 minutes a month.
If that isn’t placing things in perspective, that is a 513.6% increase in time spent.
The time spent on TikTok is far higher than Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube combined.
TikTok’s never-ending feed lures you in and can turn minutes into hours without a thought.
Many users realize that a habit like that is harmful but never take action against it.
Its enabling role has caused countless hours to waste away. And it has risen fast. Being #5 most popular out of the top 15 social media apps in a little over three years.
TikTok has evaporated billions of hours of people’s time. It’s now a wasteland of mind-numbing non-stop entertainment for everybody willing to take part.
I recommend everyone to avoid it at all costs and not engage with it.
Instagram: The Horseman of Envy
When you think Instagram, you think glamour.
Many influencers post about their Rolex’s, first-class flights, and their new Ferrari.
Yet, this is not a motivating force for many.
Constant bragging from influencers on the platform equates to resentment that sticks rice at the bottom of a pot.
The consumers wish for the influencer lifestyle but do nothing to achieve it. Which leads them into a cycle of self-loathing and endless comparison.
Despite the most used hashtag being #love, there’s plenty of hatred and dishonesty on the platform.
This can range from:
- Promoting a product they do not believe in, let alone buy.
- Lying about or exaggerating their lifestyle to gain more followers and brand deals. Equating to more revenue.
- Engaging in and starting controversies with other creators.
- Pushing their followers to engage in hateful and harmful acts, whether it be online or in person.
With all these factors combined, Instagram tends to be a glitzy and glammy platform. It can demotivate its users with its plethora of wannabe and professional influencers.
Twitter/X: The Controller of Public Opinion
Whenever anything a twinge negative happens, it’s already #1 on trending.
Whenever something positive happens, it’s barely circulated.
From minor incidents to worldwide terrors, many users on Twitter tend to paint the world in the most negative hues of red.
From Peter Suciu at Forbes, here are some shockingly negative statistics about Twitter’s toxicity.
- 87% have blocked or unfollowed a user who posted content they disliked.
- 46% of users have interacted with another user negatively.
- 86% have seen a post airing a polarizing opinion about current events.
- 38.1% of respondents claim that Twitter is home to the most internet trolls of any social media app.
Generally, you don’t want to avoid Twitter toxicity like the plague; you want to avoid it like a virus that kills you on contact.
Facebook/Meta: The Horseman of Media and Data
According to the Pew Research Center, almost 3 out of every 10 users consume news from Zuckerburg’s famous gizmo.
But, Facebook tends to intensively track user data to feed the most curated news posts for higher engagement. Which leads to the omission of other information, not in the drip feed. There have been two paramount incidents when Facebook has sold off or traded its data to other companies or exposed user data:
- In the mid and late 2010s, Facebook sent the personal information of over 87 million users to analytics company Cambridge Analytica. The intention was to send out polarizing political ads during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. This resulted in a lawsuit costing the company $725 million.
- There was also the controversial decision to leave 530 million of its users uninformed about their personal data breaches. These breaches included the reveal of full names, addresses, and email addresses.
- And in 2023, the European Union fined Meta $1.3 billion for violating its data protection rules, which had wreaked havoc on European users. (Zuck felt that one!)
Facebook banned users who mentioned the newest scandals and did not allow any discussion of these events.
If you don’t want to stay misinformed or have your data exposed to pesky hackers, it is best to stay away.
Conclusion
A society with social media toxicity and addiction can be bleaker. Refusing to take action against the rampant toxicity and data swiping we see so often makes it worse.
(Let’s make an organization called SMA, Social Mediaholics Anonymous. That should do the trick!)
With social media, there is goodness but also a fair share of bad within.
It is best to refrain from excessive use of social media and to ingest content mindfully.
Before you go, leave a few claps by my door and a reply in the proverbial mailbox. I wish you a spectacular day.
Sources: (For credit to these talented people)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9486470/
https://marketsplash.com/tiktok-addiction-statistics/
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/22/business/meta-facebook-eu-privacy-fine.html
https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/fact-sheet/social-media-and-news-fact-sheet/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306460322000259?via%3Dihub
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35091200/
https://simpletexting.com/blog/most-toxic-social-media-apps/
