It’s time to stop chasing virality on social media

By Carly Schmidt, nonprofit consultant, climate advocate, writer

There is no need to meme-ify your mission to chase down a million three-second views. Instead, work on cultivating an internet presence that is credible, and scannable.

In nonprofit communications, social media is one of only a few free tools we have to drum up support for our organizations. But, recently, creating content on social media feels more like slapping a nonprofit logo on a pack of cigarettes—a feeling that is being compounded by recent verdicts about Big Tech’s intentional design of harmful products.

Fifty years ago, the American scholar Herbert A. Simon coined the term “attention economy.” He warned us that, in a world where information is abundant, attention becomes a limited and profitable resource. 

This prophetic insight sheds light on today’s social media landscape, in which every view, click, and unique visit turns human attention into a revenue stream. (This revenue stream benefits tech giants more than it could ever benefit our organizations.) 

Tech CEOs have been reluctant to own up to the harmful qualities of their products. Just last month, Google and Meta were found to have been a factor in a teen’s mental health struggles, and ordered to pay millions in punitive damages. Despite this verdict, Meta insists that there is not enough evidence to call their features harmful. When I dug into the research, I learned that our daily scroll is negatively impacting sleep and exposing us to involuntary hate-based content. While simultaneously destroying our attention span, scrolling also drives up instant gratification-seeking behavior outside our social media habit. And, perhaps most concerning of all, scrolling is both compulsive and depressing.

But isn’t this research supplementary to our own experience? We are all deeply familiar with the disorienting feeling of coming back to Earth after a runaway scroll.

So, when I post a meme-ified message on a nonprofit’s behalf with the purpose of landing in your infinite scroll, even for the sake of a good cause, I feel that I am making someone’s life just a little bit worse. 

This logic, I admit, is a bit of a stretch. Why would one more video make someone’s life meaningfully worse? When I try to answer this question, I think of sports betting. Sports betting, newly legalized across 38 states, is justified mainly because it supports public services through taxation. But what does that mean for the people whose lives are consumed by addiction? It seems like, as a society, we should have learned to be suspicious of a profit-seeking corporation that says, Yes, we created this harmful thing, but it is your choice (fault) if you abuse it! 

There is some nuance to the social media debate, and reasonable concerns about what more stringent age verification will mean for data privacy and surveillance. One meta analysis reported improved access to mental health resources through social media use. But I have noticed that similar studies showing increased social connection do not account for the essential difference between connecting with followers and scrolling through a ‘For You’ page. These are entirely different activities, and one has much greater potential for community connection than the other.

And then there’s the incredible hubris of thinking that my videos even make it to your endless scroll, which brings me to my next question: Am I reaching new supporters by participating in the attention economy? The answer in the new algorithmic landscape is: No. Content farms, with the help of generative AI, are churning out hundreds of pieces of content per day, resulting in a highly competitive landscape. Plus, even if we do break through, viral events do not significantly increase engagement in our organizations and rarely lead to sustained growth.

It makes sense that you would think that virality is the answer. Americans spend on average 2.5 hours scrolling per day. Surely, you could get your message in front of some of them, but this kind of engagement can only be superficial and short-lived.

Besides, virality is just that—a virus. It is much like capitalism itself, which infects and replicates for the sake of growth at the expense of people and nature. There’s a colonialism metaphor here, too. Tech giants defend their products—and endless expansion—by claiming that they bring resources to communities. Look at mutual aid organizers, who tell their neighbors where to find resources after a hurricane! But the goal of a mutual aid hub is not virality, it is local information-sharing. In fact, when nonprofits post with the goal of landing in the endless scroll, the reverse becomes true. Tech giants exploit your attention to bring resources to themselves.

My aunt found TikTok a few years ago and, with it, every wellness grifter on the planet. There, she found a life coach and a new religion. I can’t be too surprised by any of it because, alongside good and well-meaning organizations, movement-builders, and organizers, our feeds are overflowing with grifters intent on exploiting every inch of your attention for financial gain. 

Do we really want the social sector to be in similar company?

Your organization is not a profit-seeking automaton. You provide a service to your community. The fact that you require capital to operate does not require your participation in the capitalist system in the same way that a tech company, which must grow for the sake of its investors, is forced to participate. You have agency. You support people and communities in a way that existed long before capitalism showed up on the scene.

I am not saying that organizations should retreat from this addictive corporate hellscape entirely. What I am suggesting is that you stop creating internet noise. There is no need to meme-ify your mission to chase down a million three-second views. Instead, work on cultivating an internet presence that is credible, and scannable. Videos are incredible for building trust, but create these videos for your audience. Be sure that you are speaking to the people who already support you, instead of a general audience that will spend less than a minute with your work. Focus on information-sharing that speaks to your mission and, there, you will find your supporters. 

The attention economy can only provide you with the most superficial support. What you need is trust and connection. Virality is not the answer, community is.