SYSTEMS FAILURE

Social media's time of reckoning is here. Are fashion brands going to stay put or rock the boat?

- NIDA NAEEM

Opening Instagram first thing in the morning is the most enduring ritual for many of us. Coffee and books come and go, but doomscrolling is forever. Or is it? It's impossible to imagine daily life without the ubiquitous presence of social media. Yet, after a decade of supercharged growth that witnessed new means of connecting with people and creating and consuming content, social media has reached a melting point.

LOSING FAITH

Headlines from the past month were rife with reports of mass layoffs at two of the world's most powerful social media giants. According to a report released by Meta, it laid off 13 per cent of its workforce - which amounts to 11,000 employees - owing to unexpectedly low revenue in the last quarter. In a public announcement to address the matter, CEO Mark Zuckerberg indicated that the fallout was a result of diminished e-commerce in the post-pandemic world, as well as a host of privacy changes by Apple that have changed the way data is collected and ads are targeted on Meta platforms.

Elsewhere, Elon Musk's controversial take over of Twitter has had many wringing their hands over the future of the app, and fittingly so. After firing half of the social media network's staff, Musk introduced paid 'blue ticks' - giving users the option to pay a small fee of $8 to get verified instead of waiting for the Twitter team to determine if their clout was valid. Predictably, parody accounts spurted, spoofing brands and public figures to comic effect. Many brands proceeded to withdraw all advertising from the platform. Luxury fashion's enfant terrible Balenciaga deleted its account entirely.

Tanya Mehta, who leads content at homegrown label Bhaane, chimes in: "I feel like Balenciaga is following in the footsteps of Bottega Veneta [by deleting its social accounts]. When Daniel Lee came on as BV's creative director, there was a lot of curiosity about how he would reinvent the Italian heritage brand.