Is it time to ditch social media?

Despite building an entire career around using social media and other tech platforms to mobilize communities into action, I found myself in complete agreement with Siri Agrell's decision to shut down her social media channels as she campaigns for election to Toronto City Council in Parkdale-High Park.

This would seem to cut against everything we have learned since Barack Obama took to Facebook and Twitter in 2008 to bring his message to whole new cohorts of voters. Since then, every campaign team has found itself in a technology arms race to outdo the other side.

First came the battle to acquire the most likes.

Then the battle to out-target the other side to reach new audiences.

That was followed by the battle to out-big-data the other side.

Now, our social feeds are exposed to duelling memes and 5-second attack ads as campaigns try to adapt to rapidly-changing media habits of an attention-starved generation.

In all of these evolutions, social media platforms have been the conduit through which campaigns reach their audiences with good reason: used effectively, these platforms are effective in broadcasting your message, reaching specific communities, and shifting the narrative on a public issue.

But that effectiveness comes at a price. If we're being honest with ourselves, we know that most social media engagement is cheap. Does an upvote on Reddit actually do much to secure a win at the ballot box? Does the 5-minute TikTok message change minds? Will people mobilize on the back of a witty tweet? Can you meaningfully engage a community with an artful Instagram feed? Maybe? Maybe if you're selling a product. Not if you need to mobilize people into action. Not if you need to build authentic citizen-led movements.

Which brings us back to Siri Agrell's decision to abandon social media without abandoning technology. Her premise is one I have seen bear out in every advocacy campaign I have been involved with or exposed to: social media is too-often a cesspool of vitriol. When you take people off social, and engage them directly or offline, you build meaningful connections, and in turn, get license to mobilize people for change.

Taking away Twitter as a megaphone will require me to establish more direct relationships and make me a better public servant, which is what politicians are meant to be. - Siri Agrell

I love the challenge Siri has set for herself: to take away the busywork of social media—which too often gives campaigners the sense that we've accomplished something because we topped up our social feeds—with direct engagement. An active social media feed does nothing to mobilize people. Authentic mobilization takes direct engagement, and in my experience, that engagement works best with old-school technology (email, phone, SMS, meetings, town-halls, etc.) when in-person isn't viable.

While we don't all need to go cold turkey on social media, there's something about the challenge of seeing how authentic your community engagement is, if you force yourself to go an extended period of time without it. Why not set a challenge for your team: if we went completely off social today, could we grow our community, or strengthen our community relationships? It's an answer that you can only answer by trying it.