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Since the dawn of social media, as an anthropologist, I find the way it has evolved to be incredibly fascinating. The original point of social media was to bri

Since the dawn of social media, as an anthropologist, I find the way it has evolved to be incredibly fascinating. The original point of social media was to bring people together and build communities. Now, more than a decade removed from it's inception, it is doing the exact opposite. It's tearing people's communities apart, making people more polarized, and driving huge wedges into the very foundation of this country. And yet, with all the privacy concerns, people continue to use it more and more, seemingly unaware of the consequences of doing so. It's like a train wreck you see coming a mile away. Yet you continue to stare, thinking or hoping its going to get better.

nostalgeek 9y ago
> The original point of social media was to bring people together and build communities. Now, more than a decade removed from it's inception, it is doing the exact opposite. It's tearing people's communities apart, making people more polarized, and driving huge wedges into the very foundation of this country. "Corporate" Social media are businesses, they are not here to bring people together but to sell influence. Businesses like Google,Twitter or Facebook have been very good at that. Social media are no different than TV or any ad sponsored business. The customer is the advertiser. How do you think these businesses are making billions without their users paying anything? Venture Capitalists decided to support these business models with massive amounts of money, allowing them to reach critical mass. The whole "bringing people together" was just marketing ploy during the growth period in order to acquire an audience. But that's not how VC got their return on investment. Remember when Facebook was a website acting as a private network for families and friends? they quickly pivoted away from that because it doesn't make that much money.

nostalgeek 9y ago

> The original point of social media was to bring people together and build communities. Now, more than a decade removed from it's inception, it is doing the exact opposite. It's tearing people's communities apart, making people more polarized, and driving huge wedges into the very foundation of this country. "Corporate" Social media are businesses, they are not here to bring people together but to sell influence. Businesses like Google,Twitter or Facebook have been very good at that. Social media are no different than TV or any ad sponsored business. The customer is the advertiser. How do you think these businesses are making billions without their users paying anything? Venture Capitalists decided to support these business models with massive amounts of money, allowing them to reach critical mass. The whole "bringing people together" was just marketing ploy during the growth period in order to acquire an audience. But that's not how VC got their return on investment. Remember when Facebook was a website acting as a private network for families and friends? they quickly pivoted away from that because it doesn't make that much money.