While browsing for news recently, I came across an article from NBC News that was titled “Why We’re Not Satisfied with Social Media.” Of course, my interest was piqued because it would certainly seem like people are, in fact, satisfied with social media. After all, it’s hard to deny the popularity of social media sites; they have more than a billion users combined.
Social media seems to have filled a void for many people. I’m not sure that we knew that void was there. But prior to social media, we were much less likely to keep up with friends, family members, really anyone. Social media has even rendered high school reunions obsolete. Anyone that I’m interested in staying in touch with, I just friend them on Facebook. Boom, I know exactly what’s going on in their lives.
But while social media is a great tool, it can also be frustrating at times, also. The NBC article discusses several reasons why users are sometimes less than satisfied with the social media experience:
- Privacy concerns – social media sites seem to have ever-changing privacy policies. It does seem kind of odd that we have to worry so much about protecting information that we are willing to share with some. It seems like it’s always a struggle to keep the information that you want to stay private, to yourself.
- Advertising – people surveyed for the article also said that they feel “inundated” by advertising on social media sites. When sites like Facebook and Twitter were first launched, they had little to no paid advertising. Now, it does seem like every time we visit a page, they have found a new way to fit advertising in. While it’s not always a bad thing, it can be overwhelming sometimes.
- It’s a time-suck – ever felt like you’ve sat in front of your computer (or phone, or table) for what seems like forever, but you still haven’t gotten anything productive accomplished? Social media could be to blame. I certainly am one to get sucked into browsing different sites and getting distracted from my tasks at hand.
Does social media frustrate you? Is it a tool that is useful in small doses? Or are you totally addicted? I’m interested to see what others have to say about this subject!
