From the Digital Marketer Turned Rethinker

I was fortunate to be at the forefront of the social media revolution. We launched our marketing agency in 2002, before giants like Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook entered the scene. Back then, Google was just another search engine, and while Amazon’s marketplace existed, Amazon Prime wouldn’t arrive until 2005.

Brands sought our expertise to navigate these burgeoning platforms and channels. It was an era of constant innovation, introducing new tools and features that continually reshaped the landscape. We even authored a book on optimizing Facebook for marketing, though it was published only in German.

We started as guerrilla marketers, focused on crafting share-worthy stories rather than just pushing ads. Our early projects prioritized “earned media,” which naturally evolved as our clients’ needs matured. They increasingly sought measurable results, integrating advertising to ensure the expenditures were justified by the sales.

Consider this: an ad that costs just 0.1 cents, with each product sold generating a $100 profit. You could afford 100,000 views for just one sale to break even. This oversimplified example illustrates the overwhelming noise we’re bombarded with daily.

We believed in fostering communities centered around specific topics, providing real value. One client sold cleaning products; we helped by offering useful tips and answering questions, maintaining a focus on community support over direct sales for many years.

Today, however, building such communities would be nearly impossible due to online saturation. You need novelty and enthusiasm, friends inviting friends—not just passive participants.

Now, we witness disillusionment. Many of us remember what social media promised and see what it has become:

• Twitter, once a playground of equals, is now dominated by a few loud voices spreading unfiltered misinformation.
• Facebook has morphed from a social gathering place to a relentless stream of ads.
• TikTok captivates users with an algorithmic loop, reducing most of us to passive consumers.

What’s the truth? Does this make the world a better place? Are these platforms enhancing our lives or just exploiting our time for profit? These aren’t just rhetorical questions—they’re a call to reflect on what truly benefits us.

If you’re not a major stakeholder in these platforms, it’s crucial to assess the real winners and losers in this scenario. What is your role in it? Are you still the valued content creator or commentator from many years ago, or are you just one of millions of button pushers that help bring in advertising revenue and make shareholders happy?

We must rethink our digital engagements both individually and collectively. Are the trade-offs fair—our time for their profits? Do these interactions enhance our well-being, save us time, simplify our lives, or empower us?

My position is clear: a digital rethink is necessary, for us as individuals and for society as a whole. Here are some factors to consider as we envision our digital future:

• Mental Health: The impact of constant connectivity on mental well-being, including issues like depression, fatigue, and even the risk of suicide.
• Privacy: Concerns about how platforms handle our data. For instance, the implications of TikTok’s ties to an authoritarian government or how Facebook might use the rich information it has on our lives.
• True Value: Reassessing how the digital world can genuinely serve us. I believe online communities can still provide value, but we might need to reinvent the wheel and start over.
• Digital Minimalism: Embracing the concept of digital minimalism. Our role on this planet cannot be reduced to staring at small handheld screens or hunching over in front of our computers.

Let’s reclaim our digital lives to ensure they serve us and enrich our experiences. Feel free to get in touch with me if this post inspires you and you’d like to take action.

Please see my related list of action items to reduce digital noise.