Is Most Social Media Basically SPAM?
Just a brief random thought here, before I go off and try to do something productive with my existence:
I got to wondering if ALL social media is basically one form of SPAM or another.
I mean... sure, we "opt in" by reading things, but I look at some of these people who send tweets to twitter every time their nose twitches, or pictures of every bite of a taco they take goes to Instagram.
I'm going to go walk on the beach...
The reason I was thinking about this was that I was telling a friend that my twitter account was actually over ten years old, and he declared "Yeah, that social media stuff is just too spammy for me."
Although I am a regular user of social media... from Steemit to Facebook... I can appreciate his perspective, and even empathize.
In fact, I have actually gone on complete hiatuses from social media for months at a time because it felt like it had all become a wall of noise, with pretty much zero signal to be found, anywhere. And so I quit, and found myself pondering the question "How does this contribute to any kind of a meaningful life, if it contributes, at ALL?"
I don't have a good answer to that, by the way...
Springtime!
In most cases, I have only been able to rationalize most mainstream social media as a marketing tool for business ventures, rather than anything of personal interest.
And with this Steemlandia gig — which I like, because there does seem to be a certain sense of community here — I have pretty much dropped off other social media, expect for business related situations.
But IS social media basically just a giant spamfest?
Still pondering that...
Hope you are all having a great day!
Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!
(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Created at 190528 13:03 PST
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most mainstream social media as a marketing tool for business ventures, rather than anything of personal interest = spam
Posted using Partiko iOS
So I looked up the definition. I thought that was the best place to start.
Spam: irrelevant or inappropriate messages sent on the Internet to a large number of recipients.
Since there is a NO way to qualify SPAM so that everyone agrees, I would agree with your statement that all social media is spam and even goes as far to say that all content on the internet is spam (at least in the eyes of someone, somewhere).
I think most people would agree that about certain messages, posts, tweets, etc being spam. But when you press in on niche topics, someone might consider something spam that I do not.
For example, posts about cats don't do anything for me, but there are people that eat up that kind of content.
Nothing wrong with a whole list of people receiving cat pics (if they signed up for it). But I will choose not to!
So for me personally, if the content is spammy I don't mind as long as I have a way to go on hiatus (either short-term or permanently).
Good points @sumatranate. It's all relative, in the end... personally, I have always preferred content with some "meat on its bones," meaning that I am either learning something from it, or getting new information about something I'm interested in... your cat pictures example is a good one.
What is one person's spam is interesting to another.
On facebook I follow my family and close friends only.
I care about what they eat and think and pictures of their kids. If they were strangers to me I wouldn't.
If one of my friends get's too political, I block the sites they are forwarding from and I can still enjoy my friend without her politics.
I think a lot of people don't know how to "control" their own experience and expect everyone else to cater to their wishes.
That might be the difference in those who enjoy it and those who do not.
Family connections are pretty much my only "personal" use for Facebook, anymore. Other than that, it's just for promotional awareness of business related projects. I do tend to take a personal conversational tone in my business posts, mind you... which people seem to appreciate.
I never really — even in the beginning — got into the whole "social media as popularity contest" thing... just don't have that much time on my hands.
It's in the eye of the beholder. People who treat it like spam and just take photos and videos of everything compulsively will get a spammy experience. That used to be how I felt.
If you use it to share interesting stuff with your friends now and then and basically as a self-enhancement tool, then it can be just the opposite, full of learning and fun
Fair enough @heymattsokol, I'll take that assessment. Like many things, it basically can be what you choose to make of it. I think my post was somewhat motivated by having been completely OFF most mainstream social media for several months... and coming back to do some business-related stuff, I really noticed how much "noise" I saw, compared to very little "signal." But the "signal" aspect clearly means very different things to different people.
Real life has a lot more signal, that's for sure 😂
it's a dumpster fire, one man's garbage is another man's treasure 😆
Very true! I think I may just be getting more particular about how I spend my time. I got pretty burned out on Facebook and twitter during the last US Presidential election campaign... too many people showing their ugly and intolerant sides, and the "shrillness" of those voices got grating, after a while.
Spam is subjective. A single photo with no words may appear to be spammy, but if you know the person personally it probably has more meaning. I think we all need to define spam for ourselves and stop following people who fill our feed with what we consider spam.
Posted using Partiko Android
Spam is, indeed, subjective. For me, it mostly involves those who appear to simply be "posting, for posting's sake," like they almost have some personal goal to send 100 posts with no explanation through their feeds every day. Just makes me wonder WHY? And then I feel some annoyance because of how much time that adds to my own task of sorting through it all to find anything I am personally interested in.
Great article. I like that your provided a serious message but it had a beach scene as the sorbet or crudite to make it palatable. Is a spammer working under same pretensions though.
Posted using Partiko Android
At least I'd like to think that I attempt to post things I believe have some (at least minimal!) measure of value, or interest, or discussion worthiness for others... but I am not convinced that a lot people think it through, that far.
Yes your good intentions is what makes it good content
Posted using Partiko Android
You seem to be very quiet on comments lately. You can use them for both (personal and business).
Posted using Partiko Android
Unfortunately, I have very little time these days @chesatochi, we are closing a business and have some family things going on, as well... I'm not in front of the computer "just for fun" nearly as much as usual... or as much as I would like to be.
There's some value. Not today, but future anthropologists will have it so easy.
Posted using Partiko Android
Yes, there's definitely some value, here and there. And maybe that's enough...