Did you see this headline earlier this week, Reader?
​‘Things I’m ashamed to admit’: TikTok trend driving new level of oversharing​
This is not a new trend.
When I think about my own media consumption patterns over the years, one of the reasons I started to avoid using Facebook in favor of (RIP) Twitter was that the algorithmic changes that Facebook implemented signaled to my friends and family that they should update ~ a lot ~ about the things none of us really needed to know.
A cold.
A child’s cold.
A dog's cold.
Ironically, I sought refuge on Instagram, where I could instead look at horribly lit pictures of people’s food. (Guilty of participating as well!)
I pin this around 2012.
OVER A DECADE LATER, users are still oversharing. And platforms and data brokers have been vacuuming up the details of everyone’s lives and selling them back to advertisers like myself.
The funniest part of this story is the hashtag #socialmediaisfake. Just precious. Of course, it’s fake!
Here in lies the problem as I see it…
This is in response to our lovely Gen Z, who seems super into calling water wet.
Unfortunately for them - they somehow didn’t know social media was fake.
- I blame the parents (and grandparents) who are also addicted to their devices and social media.
- I blame the platforms for allowing so many truly horrible trends to impact users and not doing enough to protect young users on the platforms.
The article goes on to highlight the responses some posters are getting, leaving out the part about the algorithm and how it helped pick and choose which people who partake in this viral moment receive the desired positive feedback from sharing their darkest secrets.
What is happening is people with personal and mental health challenges are turning to social media to get help rather than to a trusted adult or medical professional.
Oh, and advertisers just found more targets for their latest wellness supplement and lipstick.
Wanna read the whole article yourself?
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