"Social media has made the web all about me, me, me"
About this Quote
Qualman’s intent isn’t to claim people suddenly became narcissists. It’s to argue that platforms industrialized selfhood. Social media didn’t invent ego; it optimized it, turning identity into a feed, a brand, a performance with metrics attached. The subtext is less moral outrage than systems critique: when the web is built to reward attention, the safest bet is to make yourself the product. The “web” shifts from a network of information to a theater of personas, where every post is both expression and bid.
Context matters: Qualman rose with the early-2010s wave of social media optimism curdling into anxiety. As Facebook, Twitter, and later Instagram normalized public self-documentation, the internet’s center of gravity moved from search to share, from pages to profiles. His line captures that pivot with a bluntness designed for keynote slides and airport-business-book clarity.
What makes it work is the accusation hidden in its simplicity: if everything is personalized, nothing is shared. A web organized around “me” doesn’t just inflate the self; it thins out the commons.
Quote Details
| Topic | Internet |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Qualman, Erik. (2026, January 17). Social media has made the web all about me, me, me. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/social-media-has-made-the-web-all-about-me-me-me-68123/
Chicago Style
Qualman, Erik. "Social media has made the web all about me, me, me." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/social-media-has-made-the-web-all-about-me-me-me-68123/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Social media has made the web all about me, me, me." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/social-media-has-made-the-web-all-about-me-me-me-68123/. Accessed 19 Feb. 2026.






