Social Media Overlap

This might be considered a first-world problem if social media hadn’t already invaded and established itself in second- and even third-world environs.  But it has.  Twitter has been roundly credited with facilitating the various revolutions that constituted the Arab Spring; Facebook is a global communication tool, counting more than a billion world-citizens as active users; YouTube is the go-to source for instant access to amateur video, be it footage from the front lines in Syria to a clip of goats screaming like humans.  And now Instagram (among many, many other social media platforms) is asserting itself.  The picture-sharing service displays and catalogs users’ photos but, with increased use, content is beginning to overlap platforms.  This phenomenon isn’t unique to Instagram and it doesn’t just annoy me, it threatens to destroy the relevance of all other social media platforms.

Overlap (which may not be the technical term for this, if there even is one, which I’m sure there is) occurs when the post on one platform is automatically posted on other platforms.  Example: someone tweets something; that tweet then shows up on that someone’s Facebook page.  On one hand, there’s something to be said for total social media saturation, in the case of official POTUS announcements perhaps, or for the quick spread of emergency information and updates.  That’s all fine, totally understandable.  On the other hand, in the case of unimportant individuals like you and me, saturation is wholly unnecessary.  Take this example: someone posts a photo on Instagram; that photo then shows up on that someone’s Facebook page, their Twitter profile, their Tumblr blog, their Pinterest board, etc…  Overlap, I think, is overkill. 

The three most widely-used platforms are, in effect, much the same.  Facebook, Twitter and Instagram all allow the sharing of content (be it thoughts, links, or photos) between friends or followers.  These days, it seems that most people who use one platform use at least one other platform with relative frequency.  And since most people are friends or followers across multiple platforms, it makes little sense to 'clog the feed' on all these different platforms with the exact same thing.  It seems especially silly to saturate the scene (and risk alienating all but the most ardent friends or followers) considering that Facebook (and Twitter to a different degree) lets users share content (be it thoughts, links or photos) and keeps it in one place, on one feed.  Seriously, why tell or show the same thing to the same people several times over, in several different places? 

Overlap, I think, is overkill.  I find it cloying, annoying and borderline desperate.  As such, I think that for individuals like you and me, content should be kept separate, confined to its uniquely-suited platform for sharing.  Either that or we should only be using one universal platform like Facebook to share all manner of content (be it thoughts, links, or photos).

#bombasssando

It’s quite possible that I am unusual in my social media consumption and participation.  I may be in the minority with my opinion on overlap.  But to me, part of the purpose (and fun, I think) of social media is belonging to different virtual communities and networks, sharing different things with different people.  If the same content is plastered on all the platforms, for all the same people to see, why even have all the platforms?  Are we that afraid of being ignored?  It’s like meeting friends to shoot hoops at the park, announcing “I just had the best sandwich ever – take a look at this thing,” and showing them a photo of it.  Then going to grab some afternoon-beers at the pub, announcing “I had the best sandwich ever – take a look at this thing,” and showing them a photo of it.  Then having these same friends over to grill burgers, announcing “I had the best sandwich today – take a look at this thing,” and showing them a photo of it.  Overkill. 

To be clear, talking about the same sandwich with the same people at all these different places just makes going to all these different places pointless.  The same goes for social media.  That overlapping picture of your lunch is ruining social media for me (and likely others), making a strong case for its irrelevance and blurring what I think ought to be clear lines dividing platforms.