Here's the dystopia I see coming...
1) You're going to need at least one social media account to function.
For example:
Mortgage companies require you to have home insurance on any mortgaged home. Municipalities generally require to keep your property in good repair, and municipal bylaws tend to be getting more and more restrictive. I think that is going to lead to most municipalities requiring you to have insurance on your home in case something should happen, even if you don't have a mortgage, because they don't want 123 main street to be a smoking crater should the house burn down.
Insurance companies are increasingly making use of social media to determine premiums. I think that eventually will lead to a point where you have top submit your social media information to get insurance, and thus to get a mortgage and potentially even own a house outright, you have to allow the insurance company to monitor your social media accounts.
So what of people with no social media accounts? I think once insurance companies get used to using social media to determine premiums, they're either going to refuse to give insurance to people who won't submit accounts or charge them exorbitantly high premiums while saying, "Well, it's impossible to evaluate how big of a risk you are to insure without access to your social media."
I also think that we're rapidly approaching a point where many employers will not consider hiring you unless you submit social media accounts. It's not an issue at low wage and blue collar jobs yet, but it's coming.
It is difficult to do some things today without social media account such as dating, but you can function fine without them. I haven't had a social media account for eight years, for example. However, I think the point is rapidly coming where you're going to need it to even land minimum wage jobs or get insurance.
2) Now consider that companies like Facebook and Twitter are increasingly eroding your ability to remain anomyous on their platforms. Both now require that you use a cell phone number to register your account.
Think about what you get when you combine these two things. Are we approaching a world where if you violate Facebook's terms of service you lose your account and are unable to get a new one because it will require some form of identification? In turn will that prevent you from being able to get insurance and thus buying a home? If the white collar company hiring you wants to see your social media account and you're permabanned, do you think they'll hire a banned pantshitter? We're staring down the barrel of social media companies having de facto control of your life, are we not?
It may seem farcical, but it's not that long ago that the idea you needed a bank account to function seemed farcical.
