Most people who can access this blog use some sort of social media. That's not a good or bad thing. Social Media is a tool we can use to connect. it can be used to portray emotion or inform the people that matter to us.
Social media is not a utility.
Take some time to think about that, social media is not a utility so stop treating it as one. Social media is a service provided by companies. To provide the service, they sell advertising to be targeted at you. We all know this. They compete for your attention to generate more revenue.
So this year in Canada, our federal government decided that large internet companies need to start paying for news content because newsrooms are dying in Canada. As a response, Meta decided that they would not share Canadian news in Canada anymore. There was some outrage. This summer, there were a lot of wildfires and federal politicians were lamenting that it was a bad time for Meta to stop sharing Canadian news because it was hard to get critical information out to the masses.
Social media is not new but it is the newest way to communicate. There were ways to get info to the people before it was posted on Facebook. Furthermore, you could still post the information on Facebook yourself if you are not a news organization. However, these people couldn't think of a way to get information out besides writing a press release and having news organizations pick up the story and share it on Facebook.
If you cannot find another way to get the job done, you won't be getting too many jobs done.
Many may like social media but it is not a utility. What goes or does not go on to their platforms is not the prevue of the federal government. In fact, there is not requirement for Meta to keep operating. Tomorrow they could shut it all down and walk away. They would not be compelled, as utilities are compelled to keep operating. They are not handed a monopoly by any government. Anyone is free to start another social network. I fully admit it will be hard to ever grow to the size of Meta or Google and they have become the go to organizations, but you can try.
If either of these big companies were to fall on hard times, I do not believe any government would come to their aid and make sure they do not fail. So, if you won't hold them up in their darkest hour, you can't tell them what to do or try to use them like a utility when things are going well.
I like using social media for some things. I like how it can connect people and make people happy. I am not naive. I know it can be used for nefarious outcomes as well and I know that just because I don't use it that way it doesn't mean others won't. I think it has a place in our lives if we want it to but it is not a utility.
