The Social Media Veil: What You Don’t Know, Will Hurt You

Someone once told me that normal people are simply people we don’t know very well. I’ve started to realize that consistently happy, extraordinary, and perfect people are too.

We each choose to display ourselves to society, to our friends and family in a way that ensures positive recognition. However, humanity presents us with moments of weakness, failure and regret, and to reveal those events is an action society has taught us to refrain from.

There is talk about the power of collecting data and how privacy as a result is dismal (e.g. in this really cool Harvard Business Review article). Yet, we likely all have a story that no piece of technology has managed to uncover.

The problem isn’t the lack of that information, but rather that we forget there is a lack of it at all.

We forget that under the veil of social media, whether it be a Facebook Profile, Twitter Handle or Instagram Photo, is the real face of a human. A human, who like any other, is not consistently happy, not wholly extraordinary, and far from perfect.

As a millennial, I’ve learned that this issue is unfortunately affecting the mental health of many of my peers. We forget that we can’t compare ourselves to our veiled followers and friends.

As a previous marketer, I’ve learned the data that company’s gather via social media may not be as accurate as they believe. It’s likely that the way we act on social media is unique to being in the presence of our peers, rather than representative of who we really are.

In fact, there was a study done in 2013 that revealed 71% of Facebook users censor what they post online in order to ensure positive self-representation.

I tell you this from the perspective of someone who, like many others on social media, is guilty of sharing only the positive stories in my life.

My social media accounts show that I’ve been living in New York, employed, and loving life for the past year. When in reality I quit my job after four months, attempted and bombed the LSAT, did some soul searching, and only in the past few months have found myself in a great place.

So as much as I agree that big data and social media is a huge part of the future of marketing, the need for a qualitative understanding of consumers shouldn’t be ignored.

Most of us realize that every click, like, and search is tracked and available for businesses’ to use. But, how detailed is that data?

If you comment on a page or post negatively, the advertiser may simply identify it as engagement and target you with future ads.

Your demographic information may be pulled from your profile, but really… how old are you?

Maybe you refrained from liking One Direction, Oprah, or The Last Song (that non-Hannah Montanna Miley Cyrus movie), because…. Well that would be embarrassing.

I’m not saying go out there and reveal our your hidden secrets so businesses can become experts in targeting you (and all your friends won’t feel they’re the odd ones out). Simply be aware, as a consumer, marketer or business.

The truth is that each social media profile is the cover to a much larger book, and we’ve all been told to never judge a book by its cover.

As much as we talk about how technology is going to advance to the point where there is no privacy, there always will be.

We are human. We all have secrets. We are all weird in our own way.

Real friends will always know more about their peers than virtual (e.g. Facebook) friends. The only way we’ll ever be exposed to that level of detail is if we truly get to know each person, in person.

Message in A Bottle

To Everyone:

Don’t judge your real life based on the virtual lives of your friends. Get to know their full story, and regardless, be confident in your own.

To Marketers/Data Analysts/Businesses:

Uncover the veil by getting out of the office and exploring the world of your consumers. Allow it to make you intellectually honest in coming to your own data-driven conclusions.

Photo By Riley Snelling