5 November 2016

LETS' TALK ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA SATURATION

Is social media over saturated? Yes, my answer is that social media is definitely saturated. Here's why I decided to bring back my series "Let's talk about..." and give you my opinion when it comes to the "social media phenomenon".

When the idea of writing this post came to my mind I decided to search on Google articles related to the topic, to see if anyone had written about it previously. Here are the three first entries that came out when I looked for "social media saturation":


I don't think I'm going to write anything related to what the links above say, but I just left them there in case you wanted to read more about this subject. I read the three of them thinking that we would have similar opinions but surprisingly, I have a different perspective, and that's what pushed me into writing what is probably going to be the more disorganised and random post in this blog. 

Picture from Unsplash
The other day I found myself looking for some tips on how to become a better blogger and grow my audience, because, why not? It's nice to see that what you write is being read. Pinterest is my number one source when it comes to advice as well as finding useful posts, so I was browsing through their website and clicking on everything I found interesting. I believe I ended up reading about 10-15 posts related to what I was looking for and the content was almost the same in each of them. The main points that were supposed to help you to gain a bigger audience were:

- Get to know your audience
- Write things you would like to read
- Quality over quantity
- Post regularly
- Create original content
- Be active on social media
- Do collabs with other bloggers
-  Write about what you like and be passionate about it

More or less that was everything. After each headline there were a few sentences explaining what to do in order to "get to know your audience" or "create original content", in case you didn't know how to do it. Now, my question is: did that help you in anyway? Because to me it all seems pretty obvious. However, how are you supposed to stand out when nowadays almost everybody has a blog? The thing is even harder when you're not a fashion blogger... I'm not saying that I want to become an over night sensation, but come on, something must be wrong in a world where you can buy followers for your social media profiles...

I just feel that social networks are getting bigger and bigger everyday and everyone is a tiny part of this huge community. Some pages tell you that "being yourself" is the key, but what happens when there are many original people out there? There's no way to stand out. From my point of view, social media it is definitely saturated. It is true that you see new faces that have been recently discovered online, but most influencers/ it girls or boys/ instagramers/ youtubers... started their online career (that's how I'm going to call it) in 2007 or 2009, when Internet was almost unknown. 

Picture from Unsplash

I also think that our characters are 70% real and 30% virtual (the percentages are approximate). We are what we post on our social media profiles. Some people make a living out of it and that's awesome, but we have to remember that everything we see on the Internet may not be true. I understand that people only share a small part of their lives, but the ones who see it from the other side of the screen believe that this person does have a perfect live (does that make sense?) I know it has nothing to do with social media being saturated, but I believe that networks also have a huge impact on society. Many stereotypes and issues have been spread online, weather they are good or bad.

There isn't a conclusion to this whole bunch of thoughts. I just started writing everything that came to my mind and now it feels good. I don't want to change the world by writing posts like this, but I feel really lucky to have a place were I can say such things. I don't want this post to be taken as a complain or anything, I love having built a small community around this blog, so thank you for reading this, whoever you are.

I really want to know your opinions about the topic, so please, leave them in the comments and we can discuss anything you suggest. Do you think that social media is saturated? How can somebody stand out in such a big network?

10 comments:

  1. Yes! I completely agree! It's amazing that people can build a career through the web and social media but like you said those that are successful at it have been doing it since the internet became popular. I feel like everybody is trying so hard to be original that it has all most become a genre (can I call it that?) of blogs itself. I'm new to your blog and this was the first post I read and I have enjoyed it very much! Hope you have a nice day!

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    1. Hi Sachindri! Yes, I totally agree, being original has become a genre, and it's kind of confusing because we're constantly around people with "strong personalities" who end up being the same. Thanks for your comment, I'm glad you enjoyed the post. Hope to see you around :)

      xx Cecil

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  2. I definitely agree that social media is saturated. The internet is just saturated, and not necessarily in a good way. Anywhere you look, there's just loads and loads of people. Those people who stand out in the internet, those who become popular (in a good way) and internet celebrities- most likely it's due to their looks and charisma that they portray that jumpstarted their fame. It's also how they sell themselves to the public. Sometimes you may have good content, but if you don't know how to package it nicely to appeal to the people, unfortunately you lose out, because more often than not, us humans are attracted by colors, design, looks and the appearance. It doesn't matter if you're on an instagram account, blog, tumblr, youtube, anywhere on the internet... all of these apply.
    There's my two cents. Thank you for this post, it definitely got me thinking about this topic. Looking forward to your updates!

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    1. Hello Zelus! Thanks for the amazing feed back. I see your point, people have become very visual, and they choose using their sight (does that make sense?). I like to receive comments such as yours, which make me think about another side of the topic.

      Hope to see you soon around here!
      xx Cecil

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  3. It's so interesting to think that our favorite vloggers and bloggers were hard at work 10 years ago! It kind of makes me wonder if I've found the right spot for myself online and am making the right investments with my time.

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    1. It happens to me as well, sometimes I think: what if I had started blogging 5 years ago? Somehow I didn't, so I just try to figure out how to deal with it at the moment. I'm sure we'll all find a way. Thanks for the comment Enoma :)

      xx Cecil

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  4. Really interesting thoughts.. I've also read quite a few guides on how to improve your blog/ social media accounts and didn't really find any of them to be helpful. It's always so straight forward and I totally agree that social media is over saturated. There is sooooo much content out there and most things are just way too similar and start to get boring real fast..
    Love from Berlin,
    Charlotte Luisa | bycharlotteluisa.com

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    1. Hi there Charlotte, I totally agree... I'm still trying to find a helpful guide, as soon as I find it I will let you know ;) Have a nice day

      xx Cecil

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  5. Hey,
    It'S definately a post which means tought- provoking. It's wonderful, I mean social media is so big and no matter if facebook, snapchat or even blogger, you have so much chances to impress yourself and get in contact with others. Nevertheless, in my opinion it's to much, when you are active in every social media,where would be the time? Definately social media is saturated. For me it isn't about to stand out of a big community and hunderts, million or billion people, the important thing with all this social media is to be yourself and doesn't matter about how much followers or friends I have. Get to know humans of the world is amazing but the question is if you really get to know all thousands of followersThe significance is a lot more better when you get to know people in a smaller community, because you should learn more about this humans.
    Love,Lea

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  6. I know how you feel because I had the exact same thoughts. And I strongly agree with the fact that social media has become saturated because there are so many people out there who follow the same trends and share their supposed lifestyle with other people but I also think the Internet as a whole has become saturated because so many people nowadays depend on it. I use social media all the time and I enjoy it but I personally don't like how a majority of people only use it to boost their egos or objectify themselves and I feel like this is one of the reasons why it's hard to get your name out there - social media has become a tool to make people feel better about themselves because they're reconstructing their profile online and they're too self-absorbed to notice some of the passionate content that we bloggers write. Of course, I'm not trying to generalise these people but this is what I think.
    I suppose the only way to get yourself out there is to have some idea that's innovative and never seen before and elaborate after that. As a media studies student, I've learned that another best way to market yourself is to find out who your target audience is and what they want and use that info to gather marketing strategies but, then again, I feel like that would ruin the genuine content of your blog but these are just a few ideas :D

    Nicole ᵔᴥᵔ | florrall.blogspot.co.uk

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