Hi, I'm Cassandra

A small personal prediction about what will happen in the future (but not too far off) in the world of social media.

Cassandra was a Trojan princess gifted by Apollo with the power to foresee the future, but condemned by the god to never be believed by anyone.

Now, far be it from me to compare myself to this figure, decidedly tragic, from mythology; mine is simply meant to be an ironic way of presenting an idea to you, leaving the final decision of whether to believe me or not up to you (also because the power to foresee the future was not granted to me).

But let's get to the point.

It is now clear that something is shifting in the world of social media, though which direction things will go remains to be seen. Let's say that there are several options and I've formed an opinion.

A Change of Direction

We're tired, of everything and everyone.

We're tired of seeing the perfection of lives that aren't ours, we're tired of having to perform 24/7, we're tired of opening Instagram and seeing people trying to sell us things, we're tired of reading disastrous news that uses sensational headlines to say nothing (and often unverified stories or ones that tell only part of the picture).

So why are we the first ones to serve this kind of content to our audience? Wouldn't it be better to offer something real, or at least original?

From abroad you can already see this quite clearly: just think of the "it's kind of chic..." trend to understand where the conversation is moving, namely toward normalizing normality. Toward making it "acceptable" not to always be polished, with the right word, in the right place, and with a perfect image.

The fact that content creators are starting to move in this direction shows that someone has noticed that people no longer react the way they used to to "classic" social content that we've grown used to for years.

Facing Change

I'm saying it here and it could be true or not, but the situation is changing because people are changing, and we, as social media users, should be the first to realize it. And by "users" I don't mean that we're always there posting; I'm a clear example of that. I mean people who move around the platform, explore, and evaluate what they see.

All very nice, but so, what do we do?

Well, we think, we reflect, and we evaluate by asking ourselves not-so-simple questions, such as:

• why am I here?
• am I satisfied with my work?
• what don't I like?
• what would I like to do that I'm not doing?
• why am I not doing it?
• why are the active users on my profile active?

And then you get started and reassess your approach to social media, because it's not about one hook being better than another; in the future the very way we approach social media will change.

In the End, It's One Big Party

I used this example in a consultation a few days ago.

Let's imagine that Instagram is a big party we've decided to attend to meet new people. At first we'll talk to people we already know, we'll start conversations on common topics that interest us, and after a while someone we don't know will join the conversation and maybe even ask us questions to get to know us better. Instagram is the same: you start by talking generally about common topics, and as time goes on you tighten the conversation to steer it where you want it to go.

Every day we have the chance to meet new people, who might then follow us, who might then become our clients, as long as we stop constantly looking for a way to sell them something directly.

So maybe it would be good to start thinking a little differently, focusing a bit more on ourselves and a little less on what we believe others expect from us.