And Why Social Media Has Failed Us

Now is the perfect time to have your own website. Whether you're posting pictures for your loved ones or managing a business, a website gives you a level of security and control that you simply can't achieve on social media platforms. Despite being labeled as "free," social media sites come with hidden costs, often exploiting your data in ways you might not even realize. This underscores the importance of owning a website—and possibly a custom domain—that aligns with your goals, ensuring you maintain full control and intentionality over your online presence.

This article isn't advising against the use of social media—in fact, I consider it essential. However, my point is that everyone needs a genuine "home" on the Internet, which a social media page simply cannot provide due to its limited control and how it often exploits your content, including text, photos, and videos. This might sound cynical, but it's the reality. A brief look at the terms and conditions you agree to on these platforms reveals just how much you give up to use them. It's important to understand that social media isn't free. It benefits from your participation as much as, if not more than, you benefit from it, and the balance of advantage is always in their favor.

Social Media Terms and Conditions

Have you ever looked closely at the terms and conditions of the social media platforms you use? Whether it's images or videos, the content you upload is governed largely the same way across these sites. These platforms hold significant control over your profiles and content, dictating what you can post, express, or communicate. More crucially, by posting on sites like Instagram, Facebook, or X, you're handing over a broad spectrum of rights under the non-exclusivity clauses of copyright law. You may not be giving up ownership, but you are allowing these platforms the legal ability to alter, modify, and use your content until you decide to remove it. Even then, there's often a grace period of several weeks during which they can continue to utilize your content as they deem necessary.

Here are some important highlights from Instagram's Terms and Conditions:

Your Rights as a Content Creator

Ownership of Content: Instagram does not claim ownership of the content you post on the platform. You retain your rights in your content.
License to Use Content: By posting content, you grant Instagram a non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, sublicensable, worldwide license to use your posted content. This includes the rights to host, distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly perform or display, translate, and create derivative works.
Deletion of Content: The license ends when your content is deleted from Instagram's systems. Content deletion from your account starts immediately upon your request but can take up to 90 days to be removed from all backups and systems.

Rights Instagram Takes

Use of Content: The granted license allows Instagram to use your content across all Meta Products and in various forms, including advertising or in other commercial contexts, without further compensation to you.
Personal Data: Instagram uses personal data to tailor and show ads that might be more relevant to you. They also share anonymized data with advertisers.
Username and Profile Picture: You give Instagram permission to use your username, profile picture, and information about your actions and relationships alongside or in connection with ads and sponsored content.
Content Modification: Instagram can modify or create derivative works based on your content under the granted license.
Intellectual Property: If you use content covered by intellectual property rights that Instagram provides (like images or videos), Instagram retains all rights to their provided content.

Additional Provisions

Content Removal: Instagram can remove any content that violates their terms or policies or is required by law to be removed.
Account Disabling or Termination: Instagram can terminate or disable your access to the service if they believe you violate their terms or policies.
Rights on Account and Username: Instagram can change your username if it infringes someone's intellectual property or impersonates another user.

What You Can Do With a Website That You Can’t Do on Social Media

When comparing the control and flexibility offered by a personal website to that of social media platforms, especially regarding the management of text, photos, and video, the differences are significant. Here’s what you can do with a website that you often can't achieve as effectively on social media:

With Your Own Website:

Full Ownership: Retain complete ownership of your content without the risk of it being used or monetized by the platform.
Custom Presentation: Design and customize how your content is presented, aligning it with your brand or personal aesthetic without platform constraints.
Higher Quality Uploads: Upload photos and videos in higher resolutions without the compression that often occurs on social media platforms.
No Character Limits: Write extensive text without worrying about character limits, allowing for more detailed and nuanced communication.
Long-Term Accessibility: Keep your content accessible indefinitely, not buried by algorithms after a few days or weeks.
Direct Monetization: Choose how you want to monetize your content through ads, subscriptions, or direct sales, without sharing profits.
Better SEO Opportunities: Optimize your content for search engines to increase visibility beyond the social network.
Controlled Interaction: Manage how and if viewers can comment or interact with your content, and moderate these interactions to suit your preferences.
Data Control: Gather and use visitor data on your terms, improving your services or content without sharing this information with a third party.
Privacy Settings: Set privacy levels for different parts of your site, controlling who sees what content.
Integration and Expansion: Integrate other tools and widgets that enhance the functionality of your site, such as forums, e-commerce, or booking systems.

These capabilities highlight the enhanced control, professionalism, and freedom a website can offer for handling text, photos, and video, making it a powerful platform for individuals and businesses aiming to build a strong and autonomous online presence.

Why Social Media Has Failed Us

Let's take a moment to assess the complexities of social media, which, for many of us, is a necessary but problematic tool. If you're running a business, the reality is that social media is almost indispensable. There are hardly any companies that thrive solely based on their website (can you think of any?). For personal connections, such as staying in touch with friends and family and sharing life updates, social media seems unrivaled. However, stepping back from this dependency reveals a more troubling picture—social media often lets us down.

Social Media Limitations:

Restricted Reach: Social media platforms limit your visibility, often requiring payment to reach even your own followers.
Compromised Quality: These platforms dictate the format and quality of the images you post.
Regulatory Constraints: Strict rules govern what you can post, and violations can lead to suspension or account deletion.
Privacy Concerns: Advertisers and government agencies frequently engage in data scraping on these platforms, compromising your privacy.
Algorithm Dependence: Growth on social media is largely driven by algorithms, making organic reach difficult without resorting to paid advertisements.
Lack of Ownership: Despite how integral social media may feel to your personal or business identity, the terms and conditions make it clear: the platforms retain the right to use or control the content you post.
Remember Myspace: Myspace famously experienced a disastrous server failure, resulting in the loss of all user content. While such a scenario could technically occur with any online presence, it's far less likely with professional web hosting services. Additionally, these services often provide options to transfer or download your website content, allowing you to use or share it elsewhere.

These issues highlight the significant drawbacks and control limitations associated with relying solely on social media for business or personal interactions.

My Suggestions on How to Levearage Your Website With Social Media Useage

Most of us understand that completely abandoning social media isn't likely, and I'm not suggesting that anyone should. Instead, I propose using your own website (and a personal domain if it's for business purposes) as a complementary tool to enhance your social media efforts. The suitability of these suggestions may vary—some might be occasionally useful, while others could become a staple of your regular online activities. It really depends on your specific needs. Whether you're sharing photos and videos, running a business, or displaying personal projects, there are numerous benefits to having your own website. Ultimately, you are the best judge of whether it's time to invest in your own site.

Share One Image on Social Media and Direct Your Audience to a Gallery on Your Website

This strategy offers a simple yet effective way to share content globally while retaining significant value for yourself and your website. On many social media platforms, you can post clickable URLs. A practical approach is to choose a single header image that represents your gallery or blog post and accompany it with text to update your audience. Those interested can click through to explore your custom gallery in full on your website.

You can implement a similar strategy on Instagram through Stories, although Instagram does not allow clickable links in Posts and Reels. To work around this limitation, I often inform followers in my post that they can access the link from a desktop or they can go to my Instagram Story and use the Stickers feature to find the clickable URL.

As social media platforms continue to evolve, there may be new ways to engage your audience. The key is to share just enough to spark interest and encourage visits to your website for more comprehensive content.

Why You Should Own a Website in 2024