Do people take social media seriously?
When people don’t read past the headline, when messages are misinterpreted more often than understood, when posts are plagued by trolls, when the audience is so jaded they’ve been petrified, how can they? Or maybe a better question is, should they?
Almost every day you hear about some scam or catfish victims or about some creepy pervert. Or some discussion that descended into discord. We hear from whistleblowers who can prove that the algorithms keep us locked in angry echo chambers.
At best, we may glean a little information before being distracted by the sheer inanity of it all.
Despite all that, social media is the best way to reach people. In some cases it may be the only way. It’s this weird catch-22. The more we use the internet, the less we seem to trust the whole thing, yet it’s just so damn convenient we don’t seem to have an alternative and so we use it more.
We see ads online for everything from perfume to political campaigns. I just have to doubt how well this online marketing can work at all in such a cynical environment.
So what does that mean for people trying to promote a product or cause online? What should they do? Hire influencers? Use reverse psychology? Join the trolls? Give up?
I wish I had an answer to that. If I did, I’d be sure to make a million bucks!
The Man Who Came to Rent 