Understanding Social Media: Part 1 of 2
I love Social Media!
I hate Social Media!
I’m confused!
I think Social Media has honest, even humble, roots.
But Social media is no longer just a communication tool; it is a profit-driven system that delivers community and opportunity, but at the same time, it produces social and psychological harm.
People need community to thrive. Your community can help you with life challenges that you can’t manage alone.
Your community used to be the nearest small village where you shopped and went to church. Then, as villages grew into cities, community was your neighborhood, or suburb.
Now, most household adults work in some kind of building or from home. When they are home, they rarely go outside or spend time with their neighbors. We know our immediate neighbors after living in Lima for 24 years, but few people beyond that.
Sitting in our self-assigned cages with our phones and computers, people feel isolated. They want and need community. They need a group of people who see the world as they do. And this is the problem Social Media wanted to solve.
While I think the original thoughts and design were well-intentioned, it did not take long for them to figure out they could make a ton of money. Business people want access to large groups of potential clients, and Social Media has provided access to those potential clients.
Global Social Media Revenue (Per Google Gemini & ChatGPT)
It should be no surprise that we are talking about BIG Money
Estimated Global Social Media revenue for 2024 was approximately $239 BILLION.
Estimated Global Social Media revenue for 2025 was approximately $270 BILLION.
Projected Global Social Media revenue for 2026 was approximately $305 BILLION.
Meta Platform (per Google Gemini)
The Meta Platform contains Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp.
Their 2025 estimated gross revenue was $201 BILLION.
Estimated Gross Profit of $165 BILLION.
Most of my Social Media experience is with Facebook and Instagram. I have looked at others, dabbled in them, but I do not spend time in them.
Meta’s competitors are (2025, per Google Gemini):
- Alphabet (YouTube): ~$36.1 billion.
- Snapchat (Snap Inc.): ~$5.93 billion.
- Pinterest: ~$4.22 billion.
- Reddit: ~$2.20 billion.
As you can see, Meta is the King Kong of the Social Media world.
Pros and Cons (from Google Gemini)
Like most products and social issues, there are positive and negative aspects. You must decide what is right for you.
Pros
- Global Connectivity: You can communicate and stay in touch with friends, family, and colleagues across the world in real-time, regardless of geography.
- Information & News: It serves as a primary source for breaking news and real-time updates, often reaching the public faster than traditional media outlets.
- Community Building: Platforms allow people with niche interests, such as rare health conditions or shared identities, to find support and build belonging in specialized groups. It can also be used for communication with your local community. For example, Lima has a Facebook page where the village leaders and community members post information and concerns.
- Educational Opportunities: It provides access to expert knowledge, tutorials, and free learning resources through platforms like YouTube, LinkedIn, and specialized forums.
- Business Growth: Small businesses and creators can reach large audiences with minimal overhead through targeted advertising and organic content.
- Brand Awareness: For companies, it offers a direct channel to humanize their brand, showcase products, and manage their reputation through public interaction.
- Creative Expression: It gives individuals a stage to share their art, writing, music, and photography with a global audience without needing a "gatekeeper" (like a publisher or gallery).
- Civic Engagement & Activism: It is a powerful tool for organizing social movements, raising awareness for charities, and mobilizing voters or volunteers.
- Direct Customer Support: Consumers can bypass long phone queues by reaching out to companies directly on platforms like X or Facebook for faster resolutions.
- Entertainment & Stress Relief: From short-form videos to memes, social media provides a constant stream of entertainment and a quick mental break during the day.
Cons:
- Mental Health Impacts: Heavy use is strongly linked to increased rates of anxiety, depression, and loneliness, particularly among adolescents.
- Addiction and Compulsive Use: Many platforms are designed with "persuasive" features like infinite scrolling and intermittent rewards (likes) that trigger dopamine releases, leading to addictive behavior cycles.
- Privacy and Data Risks: Users often share sensitive information that can be exposed through data breaches, identity theft, or unauthorized tracking by both platforms and third-party hackers.
- Misinformation and Deepfakes: The rapid spread of fake news and AI-generated deepfakes can manipulate public opinion, influence elections, and erode trust in factual information.
- Cyberbullying and Harassment: Anonymity on platforms frequently enables trolling, stalking, and targeted harassment, which can lead to severe emotional distress and even physical safety risks.
- Sleep Disruption: Nighttime scrolling and constant notifications can significantly interfere with sleep quality, which in turn worsens both mental and physical health.
- Unrealistic Comparisons (FOMO): Constant exposure to highly curated "highlight reels" of others' lives can fuel a Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) and cause feelings of inadequacy or poor body image.
- Digital Isolation: While it connects people online, excessive social media use can lead to a decline in face-to-face social skills and a sense of being isolated from real-world relationships.
- Productivity Loss: Mindless scrolling and the distraction of frequent alerts often lead to reduced concentration and significant time-wasting during work or study.
- Exposure to Scams: Platforms are major hunting grounds for phishing, fraudulent advertisements, and romance scams, which cost users billions of dollars annually.
Clearly, there are many positive aspects to Social Media. Whether the outcome is mostly positive or mostly negative depends on the individual's understanding of it and how they use it.
Social Media is a tool. And like any tool, there are right and wrong ways to use the tool.
In Part 2, I will show you the different ways people make money on Meta’s platform and help you stop lining advertisers' pockets.