Social Matter — Toward a New Social Paradigm: Social Media as a Space for Inhabiting Reality – Vol. 06

The digital ecosystem is undergoing a new transformation accompanied by an identity crisis. While traditional platforms are becoming cluttered with synthetic noise and brands scramble for new strategies to capture attention, human users are redefining their relationship with the screen. We are changing not only how we inhabit social networks but also how we use them to connect with one another.
 

01. THE BATTLE FOR THE SHARE OF CULTURE

It’s not about buying ad space; it’s about hacking the narrative.

Major events (Super Bowl, Grammys, Oscars, Benidorm Fest…) are no longer just television milestones; they are “digital bonfires” around which social conversation heats up. The battle is no longer for TV ratings, but for share of culture. The brands that succeed aren’t the ones sponsoring the event, but those that best interpret the memes emerging from it.

Share of Culture is the new gold-standard KPI: it no longer measures noise or quantity, but your actual relevance in people’s lives. While Share of Voice is obsessed with frequency, cultural share infiltrates language, memes, and organic conversation. It is the definitive difference between interrupting content with an ad or being the content the audience chooses to share.

A masterclass in this is how IKEA hijacked the Super Bowl during Bad Bunny’s appearance. Without paying the millions a 30-second spot costs, they managed to break into the conversation through reactive creativity and a deep understanding of the artist’s codes. Similarly, the analysis of other brands’ reactions to Bad Bunny’s show proves that speed and context are the new KPIs of relevance.

Rigid planning is dead. Brands need agile newsrooms capable of detecting a cultural micro-moment and reacting within minutes. Being where everyone is looking is easy (if you have the budget); making them look at you while the main event is happening requires cultural capital, not just financial capital.
 

02. THE LOGO WARS RETURN: CONFLICT AS ENTERTAINMENT

When corporate “beef” becomes organic content

Historically, brands have competed through comparative advertising on TV or billboards, using rivalry to gain relevance. However, this phenomenon has evolved and moved to social media—a much more fertile and immediate ground.

With the rise of corporate “beef,” the heart of the matter—the conflict—moves into the social ecosystem. The strategy remains the same (the challenger taking on the leader, or two giants going toe-to-toe), but the channel has changed the rules of speed, format, and even tone.

We’ve seen this with the tactical aggressiveness of Samsung, which didn’t hesitate to respond to Apple’s controversial “Crush” ad with “Creativity cannot be crushed,” positioning itself as the defender of creators against the Apple steamroller. Along the same lines, the eternal classic Pepsi vs. Coca-Cola was revived at the Super Bowl, using the rival’s iconography to reaffirm its own identity.

This trend reaches levels of fine irony in the automotive sector, where BMW congratulated Mercedes-Benz on its anniversary with a backhanded message: “Thank you for inventing the car so that we could invent the pleasure of driving.” The battle between these two brands is already a classic. Even in fast food, KFC and Carl’s Jr. have taken their differences to TikTok, understanding that audiences reward boldness and sharp humor over political correctness.

Conflict, when managed well, is a powerful generator of a sense of belonging and community, but success lies in finding that sweet spot of mischief that doesn’t cross the line into mean-spiritedness or illegality. When you strike with the right agility and tone, you achieve a triple win: loyalists close ranks, haters amplify the message, and neutrals turn to watch. However, the risk is high: if you’re late or the joke isn’t funny, you’re not bold—you’re just a desperate brand screaming in an empty room.
 

03. THE DARK FOREST THEORY AND THE ZOMBIE INTERNET

Where does human conversation hide when bots flood social media?

If you’ve ever felt like your timeline seems artificial, you’re not alone. The “Dead Internet Theory” has stopped being just a conspiracy and has become a palpable reality: a large part of current traffic and interaction is generated by bots talking to other bots. The Moltbook experiment—a social network exclusively for AIs where humans can only “observe”—is the ultimate proof.

On Moltbook, interactions are scripted and coordinated. Will we settle for being spectators of a social fiction? The human response to this hostile and synthetic environment is known as the “Dark Forest Theory.” Faced with a public internet full of predators and noise, users are opting for silence and hiding. The real conversation is moving to private environments: WhatsApp groups, Discord channels, Telegram, and closed communities.

But there is a hopeful takeaway from this phenomenon: the human drive to connect is indestructible. No matter how much the digital environment becomes saturated with synthetic noise and algorithms that marginalize the social aspect, people will always find cracks through which to continue relating to one another. The existence of these private communities proves that we aren’t “killing” the internet, but rather rescuing its original promise. For brands, this isn’t the end, but an evolution toward quality: let’s stop obsessing over the massive reach of bots and start valuing that, against all odds, humans are still desperately looking for other humans.
 

04. INSTAGRAM, AI, AND THE REDEFINITION OF AUTHENTICITY

The semantic battle for authenticity explodes on social media

We live in a constant paradox: while technology allows for—and is betting on—achieving infinite perfection, users have never been so thirsty for reality, truth, and naturalness.

This reflection aligns closely with the suggestion made by Adam Mosseri, claiming that the “authenticity” achievable with AI is a total statement of intent. It is an attempt by platforms to redefine their businesses by betting on volume and speed.

Platforms are trying to validate synthetic content (AI slop) as “authentic” to prioritize volume, but the truth is that the audience is already saturated with such artificial perfection. This visual fatigue has generated an instinctive rejection of mass-produced content, returning real value to creators. In the end, what no AI can simulate is the ability to inject context, vulnerability, and truth—human assets that today serve as a refuge from the algorithm.

The conclusion is clear: don’t buy into the platforms’ narratives by default. What’s good for Meta isn’t necessarily what a brand needs to build trust. In an ecosystem of infinite synthetic content, true value resides in the real and in human imperfection. In the truth. Today, being “perfect” is the fastest path to irrelevance.