Much of the recent coverage of the impact of Social Media has focused on all kinds of problematic issues that are coming to the forefront of our collective knowledge, and deservedly so. However, that coverage tends to overlook one of the central issues in play as regards to how we as individuals relate to Social Media and what’s offered by the various tech platforms under that moniker. This central issue comes down to how we, as empowered agents, take more ownership and responsibly choose to engage with Social Media, and how we protect ourselves while we are there.

The central challenge I hear from so many of my clients is how easily and often they “find” themselves having wasted a bunch of their precious time either being lulled into passive engagement of watching fail blog videos or activated into more energetic engagement of commentary and rabbit-hole following. Rarely do they “come back” after wandering around in one of those spaces for 20 – 45 minutes feeling like that was anywhere near the best use of their time. And I doubt you do either.

Do we treat Social Media as a tool, as an instrument employed by us to achieve certain goals? Or do we treat it as terrain, as an environment we enter, subject to competing influences, external powers, and invisible algorithms? Like with many choices, the best answer is usually some version of “Both/And,” and for many of us in Leadership the real challenge is how to best manage that complex relationship of competing frameworks. Here I recommend that we prioritize framing our approach as “tool users” over the idea as “terrain visitors” so as to focus on the value we are giving and getting there and avoid having our time, energy, attention, and money being extracted by others against our wishes and better judgement. 

Social Media as Terrain:  

We’ll start here due to the fact that so many of our collective challenges come from this aspect of how Social Media functions in our cultural world today. In fact, even the very concept of a singular “cultural world” seems to be crumbling around us, primarily due to Social Media itself. Tristan Harris’s documentary, The Social Dilemma, covers this collapse in great detail, one of the main points worth noting here being how users of Social Media are constantly and unknowingly manipulated by the tech platforms and their advertisers, and for their own ends.

In fact, the very ground of the terrain isn’t simply a singular thing and the exact the same for all who enter, but is in fact a customized “Through the Looking Glass” world designed just for you, by those who don’t have your best interest in mind or at heart. In other words, the “terrain” you encounter via Social Media portals is not at the same as mine, nor anybody else’s. For each of us, the terrain we encounter is much more a reflection of our interests, thoughts, opinions, biases, and blind spots that anything else. But given this deep personalization of all of our experiences there, and the deeply problematic nature of it all, what can we say about it that is generally true enough to be helpful here? 

1)    The Environment – Obviously the terrain framing leads us to look at this all with certain physical metaphors, such as landscapes, battlegrounds, or even just “space.” In this space we’ll find various entities, like individuals, “influencers,” and brands, all competing for our attention. Additionally, we have other “entities” at work here, like algorithms and trackers, that like the wind, are invisible and can only be “seen” through their impact on and shaping of the environment we encounter. This environment then shapes and limits what interactions we have, how they occur, and what happens as a consequence. I recommend viewing your terrain with a degree of caution and increased awareness, just as you would when entering a carnival or used car lot.

2)    The Interactions – These interactions are a combination of user control, via clicks, likes, and other actions, and also through terrain shaping and stimulus presenting via algorithms, trends, and other community and platform behaviors. Here in the terrain space, Social Media is less about control and more about influence or shaping. As visitors to this terrain, the natural question then arises of how much you are doing the influence and shaping, and how much is being done to you? A good rule of thumb is that almost all of what you are encountering is being placed there by other forces that have designs on your attention, time, and money. Again, think Carnival here.

3)    Action Strategies – Understanding the terrain and forces at play has different relevance for different users. Your Grandma looking at pictures of your recent vacation has little interest in taking a “strategic approach” to doing so. But on the other end of the spectrum lie the advertisers targeting her and the platform itself selling them access. Their understanding of what she may want to buy, where else she “visits,” and how to keep her in their space as long as possible become extremely relevant. How much of your Social Media experience is a result of your strategic maneuvering, and how much is it the result of you being strategically maneuvered by others for their ends? Part of an effective strategy here would be to setting up some loose guidelines and guardrails to help you avoid being pulled too far off track.

Social Media as Tool:

My thinking is that most of us Individual Agents tend to view Social Media more often through the conceptual framework of the tool where we are “logging on” with at least some general purpose in mind. And I want to loosely define “purpose” here so as to accommodate the fullest range of the idea from “chuckling at memes while on the toilet” to “seeing what’s hot on X” to “looking at job opportunities” and everything else that comes to mind. The point here is that you, the user, are approaching your efforts here with some sort of outcome goal or experience in mind.

Here are a few Tool-based considerations to keep in mind.

1)    Utility, first and foremost – What you are trying to do here matters, be it networking, communication, or even and perhaps especially entertainment. Staying aware of and focused upon those specific goals, and clear time limits, should help you avoid getting sucked into the more passive “terrain” mindset where you are more likely to be on the receiving end of somebody’s else’s “Social Media as Tool” approach. Again, guidelines and guardrails are helpful here. 

2)    Customized control – How much information to share about yourself is a relevant to consider in light of your needs on each of the platforms is a fair question to ask. And the same goes for how you choose to manage your input there in terms of Likes, Shares, Subscribes, Follows, Clicks, and all the other action steps available. In sum, the more you focus on intentionally curating the contours of your immediate terrain, the more likely you are to be efficient and effective in your use of Social Media as a tool to serve your own ends, and less likely to have a terrain unfold in front of you that seeks to use you for its ends.

3)    Adaptive Functionality – Most Social Media platforms allow and foster the coexistence of multiple goals simultaneously, even those goals that exist in tension with each other. For example, I can go on X seeking a specific person’s take on a current event and/or go on just to see what is trending, both in general and among my network. And the same applies for the rest of the platforms. This focus on diverse functionality is what is most appealing to many individuals when it comes to their net appraisal of Social Media in general. But being clear and focused on what your immediate purpose is and how you want to achieve it will help you do just that, and nothing else.

Where things can get really sticky is when the upsides of “Social Media as Tool” are overly emphasized and attractively featured, and the downsides of “Social Media as Terrain” are minimized and ignored. Even more troubling is the degree to which this “terrain” is being intentionally designed with a view to us users as resources to be mined and exactly how they are being utilized as marketing and propaganda tools by corporate and governmental entities.  

Especially insidious is the degree to which the platforms themselves leverage our normal and healthy human desires, such as to connect with community, to be praised, to be liked, to be valued, etc. and tweak their inner control knobs to further their own interests, and that of their actual paying clients, in all kinds of ways that go against our interests as individuals. Jonathan Haidt’s book, The Anxious Generation, goes into some detail about the depth and span of damage that Social Media as Terrain has caused to younger members of our society.  

Never has the warning phrase “Buyer Beware!” seemed so needed, and even more so due to the fact that platform access is free. Which suggests the other popular aphorism regarding Social Media – “If something is free to you, that is because you are the real product” that somebody else is paying to access.

We’ll wrap up here with 2 last pithy quotes to bring it all home. Approach Social Media use as you would any tool, with a clear limited purpose in mind. And as with any powerful tool – “Use only as directed.” Be very mindful when entering Social Media as Terrain, such as when you are simply looking for a light diversion while you wait at your dentist’s office, because there is no sign at all posting all the warnings that apply. A suggested one? Simply “Here be Dragons!”