Social Media and E-Everything may be the next Dot Com Bubble Burst

So, I have had a recurring thought lately about the phenomenon of social media and E-everything as it pertains to marketing and business.

Social media is great for connecting with friends, sharing information, and keeping up on what's happening in the world. I am not a social media hater.

However, there continues to be billions of dollars pumped into social media platforms with no clear path for those companies to monetize that platform. A company's power and "value" is now being determined by "eyeballs" or daily views of their platform AND the amount of personal information (email addresses) they can acquire to be sold to companies who want to market their product.

Here is what I have noticed with myself and people I know personally:

1. I don't truly "follow" everyone on my twitter account. It's a craze right now to follow everyone so that they will follow you. I think this model is broken because the more you do this, the more you begin to weed out who you actually pay attention to. So, you may have 10,000 "followers" but only 300 people actually pay attention to what you say. It's a false sense of influence. Marketers will soon learn that "followers" aren't truly followers. I think that an increasing amount of people will give up in the never ending quest of acquiring more followers and focus more on connecting with people they actually want to connect with. Every person I know is looking for ways to trim the friend list of Facebook without offending people. I don't know how Twitter and Facebook are going to actually make money. Once they start being covered in advertising, everyone will dump it. At least I will. Whoever can figure out a platform to help people connect ONLY with people they WANT to connect with will win every social media user (especially younger ones).

2. I read every piece of mail I get in my ACTUAL mailbox. I am tired of getting emails. I delete them before even reading the subject line. Even if I love the organization and what they are doing. Why? I'm not sure why, but I know it's true. Actual mail, now that's a different story. My wife makes fun of how excited I get to walk out to the mailbox, open it, grab the mail, and come inside and look through it. I catch myself listening for the mail truck to come. I realize that most companies and organizations have given up on traditional mail because of cost, but MAN, it works. I open up credit card advertisements, even when I realize what it is before I open it. It's easier to flip through, it's more tangible, and feels more personal.

3. I like reading books and magazines that are printed. I can highlight, makes notes, feel the pages, and hold the content. I think E-Books, blogs, etc. will definitely continue to climb in mass adoption, but I don't think printed books and materials will go out of style. The price of them probably needs to match what you can buy the E-version for, but any publisher who figures that out I think will lock down some serious market share.

The generation I am a part of (I'm 26) prefers genuine over glossy. We are looking for meaningful connections and real, authentic experiences. What if Social Media and E-everything is the next dot com bubble burst?