Social Media: Child of the Recession, Child of the Times
Oct 7th, 2009 by David Svet
Social Media came of age in this recession. I believe the phenomenal growth of the various social media channels owes much of its success to the recession. The current under 
employment rate hit 17% last month according to Paul R. La Monica at CNNMoney.com — that’s all the folks who are unemployed, plus the ones who have stopped filing or looking, and the ones who are working part time to make ends meet. That is an extraordinary number of people who are trying to find work colliding with an amazing technological shift that facilitates networking at a time when it is most needed.
Now imagine that this hadn’t happened. Picture the economy racing along at a brisk pace and unemployment hovering around 3 or 4%. Would we be talking about social media? Would any of us have the time or inclination to use it for anything other than entertainment? Or is there more to the shift?
I think the idea of Generation Me is bigger than what it seems. Yes, there is a greater focus on self in GenXers and Millenials, but it’s largely the responsibility of their Boomer and Silent Gen parents who made sure that every kid on every team got a medal for participating in soccer, etc. The drive to get what’s best for our families is fueling the intensity of our networking. The intense focus inward is the result of the times — two recessions, two wars, bitter political divisions, and an increasingly hectic home and work life are forcing us to put up barriers. While we do this to gain control of our lives, it results in a loss of community — an innate human need. I believe we are filling that need with social media.
So, what we are really living through is a tectonic shift in how we communicate. It’s being brought on by world events colliding with economic events to create an intense need that is filled by a new technology. I wonder, if this is true, what will we do when the economy does return to a fast pace? Will we bring the technology with us and forever change how we work or will we be too preoccupied to continue with it? Time will tell.
I hadn’t even considered the relationship between the recession and the rapid growth of social media until I read your post this morning. It makes sense - both the low cost and the need to connect and create community.
My sense is that a fundamental change is occurring and that the technology will move along with us is the economy improves. It will be interesting to see what occurs.
Very prescient analysis Dave, I think you’re dead on in relation to the factors currently at play.
Personally I think it’s inevitable that the practices currently being developed due to extreme circumstances are going to stick when things round off. There’s an efficiency to social media that’s been lacking in prior communications and I think people are going to find the personalization that occurs in the process is going to offer more stability to the economy. It gives everyone a stake in the game.
As we all know marketing works if your audience becomes engaged in the process, and social media allows for amazing engagement. The struggle will be to maintain cohesion with so many voices, but I think human psychology will allow for this cohesion to develop naturally as things move forward.
There is also the fact that those who are growing up now are immersed in the social media environment, those currently entering the work force are scrambling to learn how to operate in the new environment, and professionals already entrenched are having to exert massive efforts to rethink their methods. With all that energy it will be very hard to stop the ball now that it’s started rolling.
Nancy and David,
Thank you so much for contributing! This is absolutely fascinating for me. There are so many extreme dynamics in play at once that it is creating an amazing environment. I’m hopeful that you are both right, we will continue to move forward with advances in social media. It will be interesting to see what Google Wave does to the mix!