The Delusion of Social Media
David Foster Wallace once delivered a parable: Two young fish swim past an older fish who says, “Morning boys, how’s the water?”
The younger fish swim on for a bit, then one turns to the other and asks,
“What the hell is water?”
The point wasn’t about fish. It was about defaults.
The invisible assumptions we no longer question. The “way things are.”
In modern marketing, that water is social media.
Need awareness? Social.
Need engagement? Social.
Need relevance, relatability, reach? Social, social, social.
But here’s the uncomfortable question we have to ask ourselves:
Is this default based on data or dogma?
The ROI That Nobody Talks About
Look past the hype, and the numbers start to whisper a different story:
Direct mail often outperforms digital in response rates.
Radio quietly drives real recall.
TV still lifts brand metrics in ways social can’t touch.
OOH builds mental availability, not just impressions.
Yet even when the numbers say go analog, we stay digital. We post. We boost. We optimize reels. Why?
Because social media isn’t just a channel anymore.
It’s a reflex. A performance. A pressure point.
The Performance of Marketing
Social media is the perfect marketing tool if your goal is to be seen doing marketing.
It’s visible. Shareable.
Executives will like it.
Interns can manage it.
It makes marketing look active, even when the impact is minimal.
Being seen doing marketing isn’t the same as doing effective marketing. And that distinction matters more than we like to admit.
Herding Toward Irrelevance
There are reasons we default to social that have nothing to do with strategy:
Visibility bias: Social is public. It feels like momentum.
Narrative inflation: “Our TikTok got 30k views” is sexier than “our CPM was $4.
Fear of disappearance: Not posting feels like not existing.
Client expectation: Everyone else is doing it—so we must.
But this isn’t strategy. This is mimicry. It’s mimesis.
And if everyone is copying everyone else, no one’s thinking clearly.
The Default Setting Is Not Always the Smart One
Somewhere along the way, social media became marketing’s air supply.
Essential.
Ubiquitous.
Unquestioned.
But strategy starts by seeing the water.
We’ve confused being present with being persuasive. We’ve mistaken motion for progress. And we’ve collapsed our media thinking into a single platform—because that’s where everyone else is looking.
That’s not strategy.
That’s stagnation dressed up in a Canva template.
You Get to Choose Where to Pay Attention
David Foster Wallace ended his famous speech with a call to awareness.
To choose what to worship. To decide what to notice.
Marketers would do well to remember that.
You don’t have to post more. You don’t have to chase reach at the expense of ROI. You don’t have to pretend that social impressions are synonymous with influence.
Sometimes, the smartest move is to say:
“We’re running radio—because it works.”
Or direct mail.
Or OOH.
Or a podcast ad.
Or local sponsorship.
Whatever reliably delivers actual returns, even if it doesn’t earn algorithmic applause.
Final Thought
Modern marketing doesn’t need more content calendars.
It needs more consciousness.
The most dangerous thing in your strategy might not be what you're doing—it might be what you're doing without thinking.
And the most seductive delusion in marketing today?
Is social media.
This is Part of the Delusion Series.
Yes, That’s Exactly What It Sounds Like.
Welcome to the latest installment in our Delusion Series, where we pull back the curtain on the marketing industry's most accepted illusions—and torch them. This article isn’t just another hot take. It’s a breakdown of how the "BS Continuum" thrives in everyday brand behavior, from toothpaste lies to influencer echo chambers.
The Marketing Delusion Series
Welcome to The Delusion Series—the no-BS guide to calling out the myths marketers keep telling themselves (and their customers).
👉 The Delusion Series
Don't just read it. Use it. Share it. Tattoo it on your strategy team’s forehead if needed.
This series lives inside the MAC Stack—the full collection of frameworks, rants, and reality checks from the Marketing Accountability Council. Think of it as your go-to library for when your brand starts sniffing its own supply. Explore the full MAC Stack here:
Introducing The MAC Stack
Let’s be honest: marketing doesn’t need more frameworks that sound good in theory and vanish in execution. It needs tools that hold up under pressure. Standards that match our values. Language that cuts through the noise.