There is no backlash

Social media has received severe criticism for the past several years. There were the revelations that Facebook was manipulated into spreading false information about Hillary Clinton and may have influenced the election of 2016. This seemed to start greater scrutiny of major online services leading to detailed information about how personal information was being collected and sold and how many services use behavioral techniques to increase heavy use and the sharing of more and more information. These findings have been widely distributed through every news outlet.

You might think that this would discourage users. The problem is that online services have become such a large part of our daily lives and have near universal acceptance. Despite the assumed frustration survey data collected by the PEW research center has found no decline in use. The charts in this report go back to 2012 and show use has leveled off since 2016, but certainly are not declining. Simply put – people see no options if they want to share with others. This is frequently described as the “network effect”. Being where everyone else is seems to be another example of too big to fail.

No matter how you view major social media platforms, the lack of meaningful competition is an important issue. Without competition, there is little incentive for innovation or responsible service.