Don’t panic over ‘peaking’ social media—just prepare

We’ve had a nice run, social media.

What began as a whirlwind mid-aughts romance of lighthearted “facemashing,” AIM chatting and making pals on Myspace has snowballed into a colossal global industry.

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram have become essential hubs of business activity, and social media strategy is now a primary concern for virtually every company on Earth. Doing business without these channels has become almost unthinkable. However, the technological tides could be turning. Many are declaring that we’ve reached “peak social media,” citing sinking user numbers on platforms such as Snapchat, Twitter and Facebook. Users—especially younger ones—are increasingly fed up with the toxic baggage that all this “connectivity” has wrought, and they are deleting accounts accordingly.