5 ms·

If people wanted the community feeling back, they’d go back to old-school forums. They have few content-discovery mechanisms (limited search, no post rankings,

If people wanted the community feeling back, they’d go back to old-school forums. They have few content-discovery mechanisms (limited search, no post rankings, no reblog mechanism, chronological post ordering), so your experimental content has the same chance to be seen as the popular stuff, and they have easily-created subcommunities. I’ve seen long-running threads develop their own community feel. Forums were built for that exact purpose; they don’t facilitate content aggregation and sharing like modern platforms. There’s nothing stopping everyone going back to forums, except that when it comes down to it, people seem to value being able to share/see/rank content easily more than they value a sense of community.

joepie91_ 7y ago
That's conveniently ignoring the various anti-competitive steps that companies like Facebook and Google have used to capture more and more traffic onto their own platforms, diverting it away from smaller independent communities by force, often via EEE-like tactics. Presenting this as some sort of rational merit-based decision by internet users, is disingenuous at best. Many of us have watched large 'tech companies' destroy our communities through monopolistic tactics.
jaredklewis 7y ago
Just my opinion here, but I don’t think our lizard brains are quite so highly evolved. I don’t compulsively check my phone because I “value” the content. I value what I read in books far more. But my attention span seems to be in free fall and I haven’t picked up a book in months. I think it is _very_ possible to want something (I.e. a return to old school forums), but not act in a corresponding way. Social media is digital drugs.
- baud147258 7y ago
  > Social media is digital drugs. Old-school forums are drugs too, I'm addicted to one myself ;). Mostly for the drama and back-and-forth.
- deleted 7y ago
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scotch_drinker 7y ago
This idea ignores the levels at which we are manipulated on today's social media platforms. The manipulation is so inherent in the platform that we don't even realize it's happening. This is a different thing from say, a statement like "There's nothing stopping people from going back to riding horses instead of driving cars." Cars didn't manipulate where you went. They just made it easier to get there. Social media platforms control, manipulate, curate and dictate the destination you arrive at all in an effort to generate clicks and then cash. They are a different thing, playing on our basest instincts and we have to ask ourselves if they actually are net benefits.

joepie91_ 7y ago

That's conveniently ignoring the various anti-competitive steps that companies like Facebook and Google have used to capture more and more traffic onto their own platforms, diverting it away from smaller independent communities by force, often via EEE-like tactics. Presenting this as some sort of rational merit-based decision by internet users, is disingenuous at best. Many of us have watched large 'tech companies' destroy our communities through monopolistic tactics.

jaredklewis 7y ago

Just my opinion here, but I don’t think our lizard brains are quite so highly evolved. I don’t compulsively check my phone because I “value” the content. I value what I read in books far more. But my attention span seems to be in free fall and I haven’t picked up a book in months. I think it is _very_ possible to want something (I.e. a return to old school forums), but not act in a corresponding way. Social media is digital drugs.

baud147258 7y ago
> Social media is digital drugs. Old-school forums are drugs too, I'm addicted to one myself ;). Mostly for the drama and back-and-forth.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

scotch_drinker 7y ago

This idea ignores the levels at which we are manipulated on today's social media platforms. The manipulation is so inherent in the platform that we don't even realize it's happening. This is a different thing from say, a statement like "There's nothing stopping people from going back to riding horses instead of driving cars." Cars didn't manipulate where you went. They just made it easier to get there. Social media platforms control, manipulate, curate and dictate the destination you arrive at all in an effort to generate clicks and then cash. They are a different thing, playing on our basest instincts and we have to ask ourselves if they actually are net benefits.