In a galaxy far, far away, there was a time when the youths of the next generation could not wait to get a new bike, skates, the latest music release, or hottest movie ticket. There were generations of people that played outside till it got dark, drank from the hose, and put lawn motors on makeshift go-karts. This idyllic picture of childhood, steeped in tangible experiences and face-to-face interaction, stands in stark contrast to the realities of youth today. It serves as a potent reminder of how profoundly technology has reshaped our existence, fundamentally altering how we interact, learn, and even perceive the world.
Not today’s generation or any generation born after the year 1990. During that monumental time, we saw the incorporation of faster communication methods. This allowed the sharing of information quicker. Once interacting graphically with static images and low-quality video playback were the only options, moving around, finding, and sharing became the norm for most who own a personal computer. The advent of the World Wide Web, coupled with increasing internet speeds, began to dismantle geographical barriers and redefine social connections. Early internet users experienced a nascent digital frontier, where the novelty of instant communication and shared digital spaces was revolutionary. This foundational shift laid the groundwork for the hyper-connected world we inhabit today, making the leap from dial-up modems to fiber optics seem like a mere blink in time.
When people mention who was the first social media platform, you are going to hear names like Facebook and LinkedIn (still around). Or maybe Friendster or Six Degrees (bye, all gone). Technically, they would be wrong, because the first social platforms, IMO, are bulletin boards that were held on your personal computer with limited multiple access ports. My definition of a group or community in its purest form. These early Bulletin Board Systems (BBSs) were havens for niche communities, allowing users to dial in, share files, leave messages, and engage in asynchronous discussions. They fostered a sense of belonging among like-minded individuals, long before the centralized, commercialized platforms dominated the digital landscape. They were truly about the shared interest and not about monetizing user attention directly. Hence, if you truly want a social interaction with like minds on a plethora of subject matters, check out Discord or similar community platforms, which arguably embody the spirit of those early, decentralized social interactions.
Back to Social Media Marketing Platforms. I define them as such because of what they provide those paying for your attention. But wait, you say, the app is free. Free to you, the consumer. But not free to those that want your attention. Companies, millions and millions of companies wanting your attention, pay marketing dollars to the Social Media Marketing Platform so you can have free access to cute cat videos. Isn’t corporate America generous, not. This seemingly free access is a carefully constructed illusion. The true currency exchanged on these platforms is user data and attention. Every scroll, click, like, and share is meticulously recorded and analyzed, painting an incredibly detailed portrait of individual preferences, behaviors, and desires. This data is then packaged and sold to advertisers, who, in turn, leverage these insights to deliver highly targeted advertisements. The “free” service is merely the bait, and the user’s information is the prize.
In Corporate America, there are Marketing Departments. Marketing comes in a variety of forms which may have even started as shouting across the countryside. The main thing a marketing department needs is info on how to convert interest to revenue. Doesn’t matter if the product is hardware (physical product), software (digital), or even a belief system. The more info gathered, the more places needed to store and access that information. This insatiable hunger for data, driven by the imperative to maximize conversions, fueled the rapid evolution of digital infrastructure. It led to the creation of sophisticated data warehouses and analytical tools that could process vast amounts of user information. This allowed Digital Marketing to define categories of users and the ways to get their attention with unprecedented precision. The days of mass advertising, hoping a message would resonate with a broad, undifferentiated audience, began to wane. Instead, digital marketing ushered in an era of personalization, where advertisements could be tailored to individual tastes and past behaviors.
We built databases of contacts, which developed CRM software. These Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems became the backbone of modern marketing and sales, allowing businesses to track every interaction with a potential or existing customer. From the first website visit to subsequent purchases and support requests, CRMs provided a holistic view of the customer journey, enabling more personalized communication and targeted outreach. We answered the where, what, how and why of our companies/products with static HTML pages with links in our emails to customers and consumers. These became product databases, FAQs, Technical Support chats, automatic software updates, all through our digital portal to the world, our website. The website evolved from a static online brochure to a dynamic, interactive hub, serving as the central nervous system for a company’s digital operations. It became the primary touchpoint for information, support, and transactions, cementing its role as an indispensable business asset.
This became digital marketing, which took on its own life-force in the last 30 plus years. In between the rapid technology growth and dotcom bubble, some presumed the digital world, as we knew it, may not survive a new millennium at the stroke of midnight December 31st 1999. The anxieties surrounding the Y2K bug, while ultimately unfounded in their apocalyptic predictions, highlighted a nascent understanding of how deeply embedded technology had become in global systems. There was a genuine fear that the digital infrastructure, so rapidly constructed, might collapse under the weight of its own code. But on January first in the year 2000, the lights were still on. This symbolic moment marked a collective sigh of relief and a renewed acceleration of digital innovation, proving the resilience and adaptability of the internet and its underlying technologies.
Those in Silicon Valley doubled down on making the digital realm accessible for their consumers to easily find their company. They invested heavily in user-friendly interfaces, search engine algorithms, and intuitive navigation, striving to reduce friction between users and information. We did it so well, that in the last twenty plus years each generation that is born marks their childhood by obtaining their very own digital access portal to the world of free information. We call them smartphones, tablets, and personal computers. Every house has at least one and every parent over the last 20 years has probably used it to entertain their child in some form. This proliferation of personal digital devices has normalized constant connectivity, transforming how individuals learn, play, and socialize. The digital realm is no longer a separate space but an integral extension of daily life, particularly for younger generations who have never known a world without instant access to information and global communication.
Don’t praise the technology yet. Once you feed the animal, it becomes bigger than its parts, it becomes its own entity. Hello AI. The emergence of Artificial Intelligence represents the next profound leap in this digital evolution. AI algorithms now power everything from content recommendations on social media to the sophisticated targeting of digital ads. They analyze vast datasets at speeds unimaginable to human beings, drawing correlations and making predictions about user behavior. This capability moves beyond simply collecting data; it actively shapes and influences the digital experience, guiding users towards content, products, and even opinions that align with their inferred preferences. The lines between passive observation and active influence become increasingly blurred, raising ethical questions about autonomy and manipulation in the digital space.
Still think Social Media Platforms are great free tools to stay in contact with friends and family. It probably is, until you realize that every access of information, site, material, or insight is laying a foundation of your predisposed preferences in a variety of situations and or options. Logging onto a Social Media application is like watching only commercials on a channel managed for your interests and then elbowing your friends and family when something interesting is shown or shared which provides access for the companies to build a larger community of like-minded supporters. The curated feed, a product of powerful AI, presents a version of reality specifically tailored to keep you engaged, often reinforcing existing biases and creating echo chambers. This personalized content, whether it’s news, entertainment, or advertisements, is delivered with such seamless integration that it often feels like a natural extension of your own thoughts and desires.
Real verified information, imagery, and insights are far and few in between in the Social Media Marketing Platforms of Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and a wide variety of others. The commercial imperative of these platforms often prioritizes engagement over accuracy, leading to the rapid spread of misinformation and sensationalized content. The user’s role shifts from a mere consumer to an active participant in the marketing ecosystem. Every share, retweet, or comment, whether intentional or not, contributes to the platform’s data repositories and the company’s reach. Social Media Marketing Platforms or SMMPs are well-oiled algorithms to provide those companies interested in YOU, the consumer, a hard drive full of insights to your preferences in everything you touch digitally, transforming casual Browse into a continuous data collection operation designed to optimize advertising efficacy and, ultimately, profit. The era of “free” social interaction has thus evolved into a complex, highly sophisticated marketplace of attention and data.
