After the Social Networking Bubble

There is overall recognition that the social networking bubble is about to burst. Marketing departments can no longer justify the investment in all the “social networking agencies” created by ex-employees and used under the insistence of currently employed friends to boost the “social presence” of companies in return for… nothing. Most of times, the return on investment is not measured. When measured, it usually proves that money is being thrown away without return. Yet, results are quickly hidden because nobody wants to expose that social networking marketing doesn’t provide return on investment. Better to “try again with another approach”. It is all that the economy needs nowadays: companies throwing money into ludicrous ads placed near childish comments made by adults.

When this bubble bursts, what will be left? It used to be that companies placed ads near content printed on newspapers. You can still go to libraries and see such ads. Some allow you to learn more about those times than the content of the newspaper/magazine, which carried the ideological view of the time. That “memory” was mostly lost with the radio and television. Most of the old shows replayed today are “clean” of the ads placed when they first played. Due to the myriad of network alliances and rebroadcasting agreements across the world, tv shows try, as much as possible, to be timeless and understandable by a world-wide audience. There is little or no interest on capturing the ads displayed along with the tv shows. The Internet is probably even worse in terms of capturing the history of its time. Ads are presented based on algorithms that try to target each individual. What web page to capture as a reference for the future?

When the social network bubble bursts, and having a social network account becomes the equivalent of having a fax number today, little will be left of value for the human history. Except if someone wants to add a new chapter to the series of books on “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of the Crowds”, full of childish comments made by adults circa 2010+.