Being born into the digital age in the late 90’s it can be difficult for many of us “Gen Z-ers” to fathom a world not connected at your fingertips. All too many people nowadays don’t even know what life would be like without their iPhone attached to the hip. As Elon Musk stated here while discussing his plans for Neuralink, “We already are robots so I don’t understand what people would really have to complain about.”
As we know, the instant gratification of social media is not all that we expected, and many of our nation’s youth are experiencing the side effects; mental illness. More and more of our youth are engaging in social media resulting in sleep deprivation, negative affects of cognitive control, and socioemotional functioning (Cmaj.ca). In Ontario it has been recorded that the number of teenagers reporting moderate to serious mental distress rose from 24% in 2013 up to 39% in 2017 according to researchers at Cmaj Group. And that is just scratching the surface of the damage done on the mental health of all age groups around the world. But who’s to say that social media can’t be used conservatively advantageous?
Many businesses are transitioning to social media as we approach 2020, and realizing the importance of an online presence. Observant consumers with a keen eye for advertising have been able to watch this transition in history. Starting at 89% of corporations, It has been a steady increase of .5% of companies using social media every year since 2015 according to Statista.com. This may come as shocking to most that that majority of companies are using at least some sort of social media.
To summarize, social media has a multitude of effects that take place, and the world is still learning what is to come from these major social sites. As stated earlier on the effects of social media on mental health, there is a large enough sample group to provide evidence that maybe it does not have that effect on everyone. As seen on the chart above, 74% of people with an income of over $75k use social media according to industry researchers sproutsocial.com. The irony in consumers usage of social media may take years for scientists to understand, so for now all we can really do is sit back and watch.
COVID’S Effect on Social Media
It only makes sense that a global pandemic would ramp up social media usage, but with this overflow of traffic does this necessarily mean business is booming? Not quite, according to GlobalWebIndex, while consumers have grown closer to brands during the pandemic, closing sales continues to prove as a struggle for businesses. Social commerce only generates a fraction of sales, but a small group of consumers say that having a “buy” button on their social pages would increase their likelihood of purchasing a product, and I would have to agree.
In all of the marketing classes every student takes, you constantly here how if you do not have a quick loading web page you often lose a consumers attention after 5 seconds. That’s a 5 second window to make or break a potential relationship with a new customer. With that being said, how would it not be advantageous to add a buy button on social pages? Not all consumers see it this way although, as 19% of Tik Tok users, 16% of Instagram users, 16% of Facebook users have said that a “buy” button would induce them to make a purchase online. These are not overwhelming numbers, but if a company has a reliable and quality product they should have no fear of a one-click-buy program, and should instead embrace the idea of it and the potential sales that could generate from it. As more digital media and communications are being introduced, consumers are becoming more immediate, and acting on their impulses more, this would be a fantastic opportunity missed out on by both businesses and social sites.
Sources:
https://www.cmaj.ca/content/192/6/E136
https://www.statista.com/statistics/203513/usage-trands-of-social-media-platforms-in-marketing/
https://sproutsocial.com/insights/new-social-media-demographics/