A Social Media Backlash?

There is a pattern that societal changes seem to follow. Early adopters rush in, others gradually follow, and eventually widespread acceptance is the new norm. The change is either then accepted and we move on, or there is a revolt. I think we’ve hit widespread acceptance of social media. Will we revolt or adapt and move on?
I was at a lunch put on by the Urban Development Institute last week, and one of the speakers exhorted the assembled throng of real estate developers to embrace social media. I’ve been telling our real estate developer clients to do this for since 2008. But now one of their own is finally on the soapbox with me.

We’ve all seen the statistics. Staggering numbers of people of all ages and socio-economic categories have embraced these new networking and sharing tools. There is nary a TV commercial or billboard or print ad remaining anywhere across the land that doesn’t include a Facebook address or a Twitter feed link. Traditional media have stopped taking pot shots at social media, and have instead incorporated these tools into their reportage. I think we can safely say we’ve reached the tipping point.

And so, as could be expected, the signs of rebellion have started. Just as the last reluctant holdouts are resigning themselves to participating, others are starting to turn away. Twitter’s growth has slowed dramatically. Monocle Magazine is declaring Social Media dead, and is trumpeting the arrival of Slow Media, a phrase stolen from the Slow Food movement. Even our own esteemed scribe Tony Wanless is opening admitting that he’s on a social media diet. If you look at many other sectors of popular culture (food, interior design, fashion, etc.) the trend is towards the slower, the hand-made, the well crafted, the small, and the beautiful. Can the sleek shiny fast-paced tech-savvy world of social media continue in the face of this kind of cultural opposition? Will we tweet as we sip artisanal tea infusions from hand-thrown pottery cups in our antique Danish chairs on reclaimed barn-wood floors wrapped in our heirloom Amish quilt?

This is the closing paragraph where I am supposed to state my opinion and support it with a few pithy proofs. But I don’t know what to say. Part of me thinks that social media is an entirely new world-view, and that the collaborative communities it has spawned are too desirable and too efficient to ever be rent asunder. Another part of me is weary of all the effort and the chatter, and still enjoys the Sunday newspaper with a proper espresso, reveling in the opportunity to think, slow down, and disconnect. So I’ll end my observational rant with a question. What do you think? Is social media going to become the new Sony Walkman, destined to gather dust in the junk drawer of the internet? Or is it here to stay as an accepted and integral part of how we live our lives?