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This is a good article and I feel it is a better articulation of the problems out there. Here’s a thought experiment- what happens if social media (define it a

This is a good article and I feel it is a better articulation of the problems out there. Here’s a thought experiment- what happens if social media (define it as you please) shuts down tomorrow. The computers and tech remain, but a govt fist stops “social media”. Going through that, working on how coders would fill the void, what it would curtail- helps refine what the technological and social aspects really are today. For example - what happens to WhatsApp ? What about Comment sections on forums? More importantly/ what functions did SM serve, that people will still want ? People will want some way to filter interesting content and know what other people are thinking / submit interesting content and say what they are thinking. Finally people will need a method to filter it all. I feel this brings you back to the Facebook problem, suggesting our issues are more fundamental. —————- My suspicions is that the core issues involves the pace and breadth of information sharing The faster and more broadcast information is, the easier to access on our phones - the less 1 on 1 it becomes. Driven instead by distraction or mental hijack through emotional clickbait - customized for you - individual conversations which can lead to understanding are replaced by broadcast and the most competitively addictive content.

Nextgrid 6y ago
I don't think "social media" is a problem. Social media has been a thing for almost a hundred years starting with the telephone, then SMS, then online with IRC, video games, forums and early versions of social networks including Facebook. Social media works well as long as its operator's interests are aligned with its users', which includes Facebook during its early days. Things start going bad when ads and "engagement" enters the picture; suddenly the operator's intent is no longer to facilitate communication but to milk out as much "engagement" out of their users as possible, even if it means turning them against each other. The telephone, despite being a form of "social media" still works fine (robocalling isn't an issue in most EU countries). Forums still work fine. Hacker News still work fine. Why? Because in all these cases the incentives are either aligned (the phone company wants you to pay them) or at the very least not adversary (YCombinator doesn't directly make money off people on HN, but still maintains it to foster good startup-related discussions that could benefit them later if those reading are involved in YC-backed startups in one way or another). The solution seems to simply put some regulation around online advertising, whether it's about privacy regarding targeting (like actually enforcing the GDPR) or liability for the ads (there are a lot of scam ads) as to make ad-supported social media unsustainable and force them to switch to an alternate business model where the incentives align with the users (people will have to pay for an account).

Nextgrid 6y ago

I don't think "social media" is a problem. Social media has been a thing for almost a hundred years starting with the telephone, then SMS, then online with IRC, video games, forums and early versions of social networks including Facebook. Social media works well as long as its operator's interests are aligned with its users', which includes Facebook during its early days. Things start going bad when ads and "engagement" enters the picture; suddenly the operator's intent is no longer to facilitate communication but to milk out as much "engagement" out of their users as possible, even if it means turning them against each other. The telephone, despite being a form of "social media" still works fine (robocalling isn't an issue in most EU countries). Forums still work fine. Hacker News still work fine. Why? Because in all these cases the incentives are either aligned (the phone company wants you to pay them) or at the very least not adversary (YCombinator doesn't directly make money off people on HN, but still maintains it to foster good startup-related discussions that could benefit them later if those reading are involved in YC-backed startups in one way or another). The solution seems to simply put some regulation around online advertising, whether it's about privacy regarding targeting (like actually enforcing the GDPR) or liability for the ads (there are a lot of scam ads) as to make ad-supported social media unsustainable and force them to switch to an alternate business model where the incentives align with the users (people will have to pay for an account).