Thoughts on the decline in online engagement
To understand the following I encourage you to read this.
The decline in engagement on social medias might be positive. Some think it is and argue that social media and the internet more broadly is loosing its appeal. Some hope this means a return to a broader social life off-screen, a return to the good ol’ days perhaps.
Personally I would like that. I do think the internet and social media in particular have caused us to loose something valuable. I’m just not positive that the decline in engagement is a sign of a return to off-line socializing. Actually I’m afraid it’s a sign of things worsening. I think it’s just the next step on a continuing decline in our social lives and our social capacities.
We might agree that social media is a poor substitute for face to face socializing, but it’s none the less a means for socializing. Engaging with other people online is still a social act. It might lack many common traits, but it is none the less social. That’s the entire reason why SoMes became successful in the first place. They tap into our social behaviors and needs, they replicate or straight up gives us a platform for performing social acts. For many young people it might be their main way of socializing, it might be how they socialize. There is a real danger of sounding like an ol’ fart, when talking about SoMes, and a danger of oversimplifying. I’m surely oversimplifying and I’m definitely sounding a bit ol’ fartish. I’ll say this, Socializing on SoMes is better than not socializing, that’s a bit less ol’ fartish.
If we look at average time spent online and studies on the state of social life in general they could be plotted in a very simplistic diagram to make a cross. One is rising the other is declining. This cross is the reason why I think declining engagement on SoMes is a bad sign. It’s, I think, a continuation of these two trends.
Lower engagement and rising or static amount of screen time does not equal more hangouts at the local malls parking lot. What it might equal is the exact opposite. We’re moving from actively participating in some sort of social act to being mere consumers of stimuli. Moving from having some interest in parking lot hangouts, to no interest at all. This is not a positive thing and not ol’ fartish to think so.
What this decline in engagement is a sign of is a world in which we have completely given up on the social aspect of life and turned to mere consummation of stimuli. It’s the dystopian nightmare of all those good ol’ dystopian fictions.
Obviously this isn’t certain, but I am quite certain that the decline in engagement is not a good sign.