5 Reasons Why Complaining in Social Media is a Waste of Time

I managed social media for a voice over business and have offered consultation to others in the past.

The truth is I like writing, and if I can write to people and help solve problems, great! But one day I woke up and realized something horrible had been happening. It was/is happening to me and thousands others online, who believe: 

• Everyone using social media to complain is wasting their time

Please allow me to share the 5 reasons I discovered complaining in social media is a waste of time. Note: I am not including things known as "social efforts", whereby people come together without hypocritical reasoning for a purely unselfish cause. 

The art of complaining is "reactive", but "proactive people" are the people getting things done

This is not a new concept, yet seems to be lost on those who believe complaining in social media is a "proactive step" to solving problems. Perhaps the closest comparison to this social behavior would be how we all thought one day that "threatening to sue" would be a solution to our problems when we are not getting what we want. The cost of lawyers, and cases being thrown out of court for being utterly ridiculous, made the "I will sue you!" threat ineffective at getting what we want. Somewhere along the way tweeting and Yelp reviews became a method of "threatening to get what you want". Seeking mob rule or legal counsel are reactive behaviors that have done more to create new problems rather than solve them. People who get results are proactively creating or building; not complaining.

Social complaining gives equal exposure to the giver and receiver of complaints  

So, you hate a business or company. You want them to go away. So, why are you telling everyone about them? I firmly believe people have landed on the moon, but if I use the Internet to talk about it there will surely be people who come out of the woodwork in support of those who firmly believe the moon is made of cheese and no one landed there. If you don't like a person or business, do you really think attracting sympathizers will help you? Why not build something yourself to show people you can fly to the moon, rather than just debate its existence? Building something new has a strange liberating feeling about it, and its much more exciting and fulling than complaining. 

Social media complaints seek "mob rule" to influence "change", but online activity represents the "minority"

So, you think because complaining makes you feel good that you are achieving something? Think again because of these simple facts: 

• 3 out of 10 people actually complain when they are unhappy
• Only 31% of online content is trusted
• Only 10% of a community makes up 100% of its content
• Trolls still exist in every online community often adding to 100% of content

Working online gives people the freedom to agree in public appearance, and then do the complete opposite in privacy. The truth behind "what is really happening" goes unseen more than 70% of the time. Therefore, your social complaining does more to give "growth" to the "private mob" you never hear from. If you are complaining in social media, as difficult as it is to see, you are complaining along side the minority (yes, even if the social movement is viral). 

Complainers are teaching businesses how to manipulate them...the furthest thing from social behavior

Think of all the things we can complain about on a daily basis, from weather to the work place. Now, think about what life was like before social media gave us an outlet to voice such complaints with no discretion? We often never spoke about what bothered us because the part of our brain that controls "discretion" did not let us. We knew and lived by the understanding, "I have to work to get what I want."

Social media, unfortunately, has misled millions of people into believing, "If I complain enough with lots of people to support me, and think like me...I will get what I want...because lots of other people want it, too."

Unfortunately, all that complaining did nothing more than tell businesses what to sell, how to sell it, and regrettably...how to manipulate people into believing, "You are getting what you want because you complained, and we listened!"

Social media complaining is not a "solution" to a "problem"...It only treats a "symptom"

Can you imagine if social media existed during the French Revolution or US Revolution? Would George Washington have the time to keep his Twitter feed going? No. Would he be afraid that someone did not like his tweets for being "offensive"? No. Would Paul Revere tweet, "The British are coming! #revolution" No. Why bring this up? Real solutions are pursued with bravery and hard work, IN SPITE OF what people may think; not in service of public approval. Solutions to problems are discovered AFTER the talking stops and actions are taken; not before. 

In short, social media is nothing more than a data resource for builders to learn how to create solutions to problems; builders not complainers. In fact, many of the successful people I know refuse to get involved in social media. Why? They know it takes away from time building solutions. And if there are any problems...they just hire people to put out social media fires, understand social behavior (flaws) well enough to do it, or have the tech savvy to listen to as many "fires" as possible. Social media management is a serious job position and no doubt many people in this role would benefit from a course in political science.

Social media treats the symptom of "how we feel when we are unhappy", but offers no tangible solution to what we see as a "problem". In treating the symptom we may tend to pay more attention to complaints that appear "agreeable", but still, we have not solved anything by agreeing on the point, "Yeah, this sucks."

Ultimately, the very reasoning above is why I one day stopped working in social media. I realized what was happening and wanted to be a guy who "created solutions", instead of always "reacting".