If you lost access to social media, what would you do? (in personal life + business)
I refer to how the UK banned social media for teenagers under 16.
The funny moment was when the BBC News moderator asked the student: How much screen time does she have on the weekend (9 hours) and What will she do with her free time now? (Staring at the wall.)
How would you use your time?
And not only in your personal life, but especially in your professional life, which is often connected to business management. How would you promote? :D
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LiveDemo
I think if social media is banned, I need to find another way to promote.
It would be IRL content, recording and editting it would take plenty of time
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@gapostolov But where would you publish it if you didn't have any access to socials?
Some interesting comments appearing from this question. It looks like all of us, governments, myself, business are caught up in What the Heck is Social media? From what I can see Governments are trying to stop kids from Porn, Fake News, and screen time, but of course a sweeping brush against some social suppliers will never solve the issue, and actually deprives kids of the good parts of social media.
I was lucky, being brought up in a time when as kids we could go out and play literally from dawn 'til dusk, that era is gone and due to safety concerns for our kids is unlikely to ever return, so their needs to be something to fill the void.
Remove social media interaction and there is a void, it will get filled and maybe by something far more nefarious - I believe in the government sentiment, but I am gobsmacked at the solution - I fear it will backfire - kids are not stupid and they will find an alternative!
As for us adults, the same, it's not worth worrying about until it happens, if ever, and then we will find a way to circumnavigate it, we always do!
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@mark_trowbridge It is interesting to see that they do not see any other options for creating entertainment. For them, a social media ban meant staring at the screen. What a creativity :D
In business, I'd focus on other ways of building community (online and offline, events, mailing lists, idk if Discord and Slack would also be banned in this scenario but that sort of platform, too). In life, I'd catch up on my reading list - the pile of books on my nightstand is getting taller and taller
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@denitsapenchevavaltchanova I dunno too, but there was a case with Discord recently that they started asking for verification because of 16yo people.
it would be chaos. we talk about social media like it's optional but at this point even your local grocery shop has an instagram. it's not just big brands, it's every business at every scale.
losing it would mean circling back to everything we moved away from. tv ads, newspaper mentions, pamphlets, onsite events, magazine features. methods that still work but are slower, more expensive, and harder to measure. which is a bit humbling actually. we've built so much on platforms we don't own or control. one policy change and the whole distribution strategy needs rebuilding.
personally though? i'd probably spend that time gardening, playing my favourite sport, and trying out new recipes. honestly doesn't sound too bad.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@riya_pariyar for sure, a digital detox would be useful, but as a marketer, I would experience hard times.
door - to - door sales / read good books
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@angsak6 I would be alittle bit shy of door to door sales, but probably in conference I would be okay to promote things :)
Honestly, I am not great at social. I have a slight allergy to self-promotion. I always have moments of doubt before I publish something and ask myself if it "sounds stupid" or is interesting enough. I then remember crazy stuff published in r/linkedinlunatics and take a deep breath and post. Without social, I would go back to basics and provide value in a more artisanal and personalized way.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@yumi_joh Real life connections would be more interesting :)
personally I'd probably read more and sleep better. professionally... honestly I think I'd survive. the stuff that's worked best for us has never been social media posts. it's been reddit threads, forum conversations, SEO content, and cold outreach. social media is loud but it's not where the conversions actually happen for most B2B products. I'd double down on communities, email, and just showing up in places like this one
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@tina_chhabra Maybe young would start using Quora again :)
memi
Personal life probably improves instantly. Business life gets weird because distribution becomes shouting into your own notes app.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@sarveshsea The thing is that as soon as I lose my job, my personal life will go down too.
ReplyMind
If I lost access to social media, I’d shift focus to strengthening direct connections, more face-to-face networking, email newsletters, and community events.
For personal life, it would mean spending more time with family and friends offline, which honestly might be healthier. For business, I’d lean on owned channels like websites, blogs, and mailing lists, because they give stability without relying on algorithms.
Social media is powerful, but it shouldn’t be the only bridge between us and our audience.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@moon10 It would be a pretty step back... or maybe people would try to find some gap in the jurisdiction... and create a category of platform that would be clasified diffrently than social media but would enable socialising.
memi
Personally, I think my attention would improve and my distribution would panic. Building without social media sounds peaceful until you need strangers to care about the thing you shipped.