Semper moronis. No, you won’t find that in the Latin dictionary, I made it up. “Always moronic.”

I was at a Roundtable for Customer Service yesterday. One of the observations shared was that people seem to trust their social media to the nth degree, going by the numbers. It seems that people are more likely to purchase something if it has been recommended by their friends, or friends of friends, on Facebook and the like. Of course, people still look around and compare prices, reliability, level of service and generally whether transacting business with a particular person, merchant or brand would make them feel good. However, it seems that how social media treats any product, service or brand would determine how that product, service or brand fares. Never mind who the reviewers are. Never mind if we even know them!

That’s ridiculous. Social media is supposed to extend our social capital, our social reach, not do our thinking for us. Jim Collins was absolutely right when he said that bureaucracy would ooze in insidiously to fill the vacuum left by a dearth of responsibility, diligence, decisiveness, critical and creative thinking. It imposes itself upon empty space and makes that space unfit for life. I am embellishing what Jim Collins actually said, of course, but I believe we mean the same thing. Social media is no longer the servant. I, Social Media, has become the master in many respects.

One other reason social media has become the master is the fact that we are what we eat. We are what we watch. We are what we listen to. We are what we participate in. We are what we constantly think about. Social media has come to occupy a huge part of that. Just look at your social media pages, and then shut down those pages, take a step back and reflect how similar you have become to what is reflected on those pages!

Stop allowing other people to use you via social media. You have a head, and a working brain inside that head if you’re reading this. Start using it! Social Media, not Semper Moronis!