I Will Now Predict Your Future

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Wow, I wish I could predict the future of social media. That certainly would make my life a lot easier! However, I cannot. And, I hate to break it to you, neither can you. Or the founder of Instagram, or the guy that grew his page overnight, or AI. None of us can predict the future of social media.

But how crazy is it that we can influence the future of social media. What's popular on different platforms, or even what platforms are popular, is determined by human behavior. When Gen Z decided short-form videos were what they desired, TikTok rose to the top and left other platforms like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and even Snapchat little time to adjust and provide their own short-form video content. As enough people started deleting apps like BeReal, it becomes less popular.

Because the climate of social media is determined by trends in human behavior, I personally think the best place to look for predicting the future of social media is to yourself. If you want to get real fancy, you can find some friends and see what they're thinking too. If you're in an older generation, try to find some Gen Z-ers in your life to lean on. If I look at my own preferences and bounce them off of my friends preferences, it makes sense why social media progresses the way it does. When we were staying home in lockdown in Covid, we wanted something to entertain us more immediately than binge-watching shows, and more engaging than looking at photos. We got tired of Tumblr and Pinterest when sites like Instagram became the "same but better" version of what we had. Even more recently, BeReal became too impersonal, taking away from the original point of it, and it was just another social media site to maintain.

So consider yourself. What frustrates you about social media? What draws you in? What kinds of things make you wonder how you were scrolling for that long, and what content brings you back to reality and wonder why you're doom scrolling? What makes social media fun? What makes social media tiring or burdensome?

Remember, the primary focus of social media is entertainment. People look to social media to find fun, an escape from life. Sure, there are sites that have purposes, but the ones that rise in popularity are entertainment driven.

Speaking of purposeful social media, there is an outlier in social media sites that die out, and it is the sites that provide use even when they lack trendiness. Take Pinterest for example. Pinterest began declining as Instagram came around and really took a hit as short-form videos became the content people look for. However, Pinterest is one of the only sites of its kind that vision boards content. It is extremely useful for individuals who are brainstorming, looking for inspiration, or working in creative fields. This is exactly true in my own life! I remember when Pinterest used to be my jam. If I had free time, I was on it. I would plan out what my kitchen would look like some day, get ideas for new hairstyles or crafts to try, find new recipes, and so much more. It was so fun. I remember going over to friend's houses specifically to go on Pinterest. Now, I would delete it if I thought I could. I hardly ever check it. But, when I need inspiration for my next graphic design concept I need to create, or a way to visually plan out what something is going to look like, nothing helps me like Pinterest. This has kept it from dying out for me and so many others! It serves a unique purpose that other platforms do not provide.

So, while we can't predict the future of social media, we can look around and see what's happening! There are so many useful clues that can help us stay on top of our game.

How do you keep track of the current direction of different social media platforms? What places do you look for cues of what's happening? How do you stay up to date and keep your content relevant? Do you even notice the same things I am seeing, or does a difference in your demographics show you a completely different side of the story? These are the things we should be discussing on this platform. If many are working together to stay on top of the ever-changing world of social media, we will all be better off. So comment below and join the conversation. Predict the future, if you will.

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