Sociocultural Limitations of Social Media
One of the great promises made in the early days of social media was that we’d all come together and form new, amazing relationships. Humanity would be drawn together. After all, we are social animals. As we’ve seen, this didn’t happen, in fact, we’ve found ourselves feeling more isolated. There are benefits to social media. This is what we might consider from a sociocultural perspective.
When we put social media into its proper sociocultural perspective, we can then figure out how to make it work better for humans, what the limitations are. And avoid being drawn in by marketing promises that are nice ideals, but ignore human nature and behaviour.
The Social Limitations of Social Media: Kinship Systems
Yes, these tools and apps can be helpful in several ways. Social media is a way to learn about other cultures, broadening our minds. Disinformation can also create greater divides as we’ve seen. They are tools for organising, coordinating and communicating.
After over a decade of researching social media for marketing, brands, public and foreign policy, one thing has become very clear. Very few social media groups stay active for very long, groups have few kinship bonds. The ones that succeed will have some form of real-world socialising, such as conferences or meet-ups.
Humans are social animals. Physical interaction, even in the digital age, is a core part of how we come trust one another. We then take actions such as activities in the real world; meals, travels, adventures, shopping. During these type of events we often touch each other; hugs, handshakes, on the shoulder. These are necessary actions of social group formations. They cannot be replicated digitally, not even in Virtual Reality. We like to see each others legs.
Social media tools can serve as an introduction to others, a learning, organising and coordinating mechanism. Social machines. That is their limitation.
Cultural Awareness : Embodied experiences
Social media apps and tools can help us view other cultures and make initial forays into how they work. You can see food, dance, art and traditions of other cultures. But they are digital representations and they are sampled for very short periods of time.
The reason we travel to other countries is largely to experience a different society and culture. You can try another cultures food at home following a recipe. That doesn’t give you context. We can watch the wonders of Diwali in the spring, it is another thing entirely to go to India and be in it. I’ve done it.
Instagram photos and TikTok videos are not an embedded experience. Social media can play an important role in discovery, but they can’t deliver an experience. It is experiences that help us really absorb and learn another culture. Breathing the air, feeling the temperature, being with people, listening to the language.
A Disembodied Technology
As well, social media is a disembodied technology. It shifts our sense of time and place, constantly. We have to interact through a device that is embodied, such as a smartphone, but when we are engaged in social media channels, we are disembodied. This plays to the limitations described above. For disembodied technologies to work, they must play with our dopamine, but over the longer term, as we have found out, this is not good. It becomes a barrier to developing meaningful sociocultural connections. Our brains aren’t adapted to this form of constant disembodiment or the constant dopamine hits this technology is delivering.
Corporate Enshittification
I took this from author and digital activist Cory Doctorow and his article of 2021 where he talks about the enshittification of TikTok. It’s a great read. It’s a long one. Basically, he points how all the social media platforms switched from delivering a social good to delivering shareholder value and forget the customer. He is right. We all know this today.
Capitalism works best when it delivers a social good and social value. But most of this value has been slowly taken away. We are inundated with ads, we find ourselves more isolated, influencers serve as advertisements for brands. We’ve been surveilled and decided we don’t like it. Governments are having to take action. When regulators and lawmakers pile on to an industry, it is a sure sign that those businesses have taken the wrong path of capitalism.
When social value erodes, sociocultural systems stand up and begin a process of demanding change or they will slowly but surely, move away from the systems they don’t like. This is happening already.
Rebuilding social media
I’ve talked about this a little before. It is not an easy answer. It means a more whole-of-society approach. Social media companies innovating on their business model. Governments setting the guidelines, but in a way that also doesn’t stifle innovation. Social groups weighing in to help social media companies develop policies.
Sociocultural systems, like the invisible hand in economics, is making its move. It is becoming disillusioned as it finds social media isn’t delivering social value. TikTok may be on a tear right now, but that is more trend than tradition.
Perhaps this is where it was always going to end up. Humans have been experimenting with social technologies for millennia. We use them as part of culture, developing the knowledge through which we navigate our daily lives.
As we share experiences and learn, we gain knowledge then we use that knowledge to change again. It is a cycle. We are learning the limitations of social media. Entrepreneurs that understand the role of culture in social media, may find innovations that will give us the next cool app. Hopefully. But it’s always messy. Because humans are messy. And that’s what makes us interesting.
