Social media apps like Instagram, X (formerly known as Twitter), TikTok, and Snapchat were created as a fun and safe way to bring people together and curate unique relationships with others around the world. Their userbases fell in love with the easy access to communication, but that changed a few years ago when social media companies realized they could make more money from their customers. 

Such companies have incorporated premium subscriptions that include exclusive services and paid priority for service help, leading to recurring complaints that social media is becoming a money grab, even though that’s not what it was made for. It’s felt as if social media has become more of a pay-for-entertainment situation. 

Which poses the question: why limit the customer base and separate people just for money?

When apps install a premium subscription on their platform, they create division. For example, on X, you must be subscribed to X Premium to message select people, creating a struggle for those looking for different opportunities and connections who can’t get verified. 

All this does is contradict the reason social media platforms were created in the first place: connection. What’s the point of dividing others when your platform is supposed to bring them together? 

The only explanation is to make more money. 

The subscriptions that some of these social media platforms offer are not very expensive, like Snapchat, which provides the counterargument that they aren’t strictly going after consumers’ money. However, other platforms like X have different levels of subscriptions, and each level costs more than the last. For example, the monthly cost of a premium subscription on X can range from four to 22 dollars. It seems more like a money grab than something that betters the app for everyone.

While social media is a cash grab, premium subscriptions only last if consumers continue to buy them. It’s up to us to end excessive consumerism and remain glad it hasn’t spread to other platforms yet.