Ha! I’m not the only one who thinks you can live without Facebook etc. Ironically JD Wetherspoon, the British pub chain, used Twitter to tell its 44,000 followers that it is quitting social media – Twitter, Instagram and Facebook – immediately.
The chain’s iconic founder and chair, Tim Martin, cited the bad publicity surrounding social networks in an interview with the BBC, giving particular mention to the trolling of MPs, misue of personal data and its addictive nature. I’d like to add Narcissm and fear of missing out as two evils it can encourage. Wetherspoon’s no social media policy will apply to the company’s social profile and those of individual employees.
He said, “We are going against conventional wisdom that these platforms are a vital component of a successful business” and that he’d always thought the idea that social media was essential for advertising was untrue. Martin also stated, “I don’t believe that closing these accounts will affect our business whatsoever.”
Martin has been accused of pulling a stunt. Probably not, I’d say. He was way ahead of the game when he decided, in July 2017, to deleted its entire email marketing database stating: “Many companies use email to promote themselves, but we don’t want to take this approach, which many consider intrusive”.
Different Martins – same thorny issue
Interesting that this happened two days after Sir Martin Sorrell resigned as CEO from the world’s biggest advertising group, which he’d built up over 33 years. Looks like he was forced out by a combination of allegations of “improper conduct” and poor trading figures.
Advertising is at a pivotal moment. Fewer people are watching less traditional TV and spending more time online. Yet advertising agencies’ customers seem less than convinced about social media’s value as an advertising channel – we are adept at skipping corporate ads and now big brands are running scared of the abuse and misuse of users’ personal data.
To stop Facebook tracking you, you gotta sign up
And acutally, Facebook collects data about people don’t have an account – as I discovered when i was forced, temporaily, to open an account to access some information for work. But here’s Rowland Manthorpe, someone else who hates Facebook, writing in a Wired, article entitled, Dear Mark, this is why I hate you. An open letter to Zuckerberg, pointing out that the only way to stop Facebook tracking you on the web is to sign up. How can that be right?
Zuckerberg’s idea that getting obscenely rich and doing it for the common good is rubbish. Wouldn’t it be fun to sue and share those billions around?
The Persistent Woman 