THE DOWNFALL OF SOCIAL MEDIA GIANTS ACCELERATES

Social media has been in trouble for several years now. Arguably the beginning of the end was in 2016, when its algorithms were used by malicious actors to not only influence the U.S. Presidential Election, but also to influence voters in the UK to leave the European Union. But it only got worse in 2018, with many social media executives either failing or refusing altogether to admit that their business practices are part of the problem.

Facebook

While it’s going

to be difficult for many to break the social media habit, expect the downward trends in some social media sites to continue during 2019. Much of it will have to do with changing sharing habits among those under 25: Here use of photo and video sharing services like Instagram and Snapchat have increased, while text based services like Twitter and Facebook have fallen. But it could also be an issue of trust. The two latter sites have done little to address online bullying and targeting, and have seemingly put ad revenue ahead of taking a stand against the dangers of false and misleading information being spread through their services.

It will be interesting to watch in 2019 what happens on the regulatory front. Both Tim Cook and Bill Gates have spoken out about the need for some regulation of the industry — something that was unthinkable just a year ago. With a Democratic House, don’t be surprised if a push to reign in social media is attempted early in the year ahead of the 2020 election season.