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I've heard anecdotally from people I trust that social media is dying. Content is struggling for views and shares. Reddit isn't completely social media, but i

by fwungy 3y ago

I've heard anecdotally from people I trust that social media is dying. Content is struggling for views and shares. Reddit isn't completely social media, but if people aren't responding to SM like they were it will hurt Reddit. If you're an insider it's probably the best opportunity you're going to get to juke the stats and max your IPO. Only going to go down from here.

libraryatnight 3y ago
I don't generally have a good sense of where gen pop is heading, but recently the few social media type sites I still use are losing what little appeal they had. It's all just so boring and recycled.
- wodenokoto 3y ago
  I don’t think social media broadly is going away, but they are changing. Facebook kinda killed its own activity by pushing growth of their social graph. Over time it stopped being a place to connect with friends and just became… I don’t know. But it discourages user activity because family, friends, old classmates, guys you bumped into on a night out, ex’es all can see your activity. It’s not fun checking-in somewhere, posting funny pictures from last nights party or whatever because it is practically public. And my impression is young kids don’t like it either. You do your highlights reel on Instagram, but other than that, everything happens in private chat groups. Every meetup group I go to, every Facebook group I visit wants us to connect in a private chat group and have notifications every time someone says something. For this old fart, it’s exhausting to keep up with.
  - arlcode 3y ago
    I feel like there is only so much "interesting" stuff going on in the lives of the people I care about. The need for SM companies to get more of my time requires them to shower me with increasingly irrelevant content to keep my engagement going up. At some point there is literally no additional time people can spend in SM (you can't get a time credit card). So more ads it is until the plattform is barely usable for someone not interested in the passively consumed avalanche of polished medicare. That's why chat groups are increasingly popular I think. You get to have a two way conservation with people who respond and care about you (at least a little bit). Meeting them in real live (or one on one online) also enforces the "authenticity" of the interaction. Therefore I expect Facebook to introduce lots of ads to WA very very soon.
winternett 3y ago
It's all been a lot of smoke and mirrors for ages now. There's nothing really that can prop up an empty ecosystem of encouraging people to work furiously for no reward or payout while only scammers and the rich win... The platforms have been allowing their own employees and leveraging bots and contracted employees as fake "winning" accounts/influencers while deeply manipulating genuine (unaffiliated) users to pay for visibility through making them buy ads to profit and/or look successful... Even sites that aren't really considered as social media, like YouTube and reddit, are guilty of these practices.
preommr 3y ago
I really struggle to understand how ads are still as big as they are. With the number of bots, adblockers, and straight up lies about the age of users, how are people not realizing that ads are not what they were when google/facebook were brand new.
- constantcrying 3y ago
  Adds are bigger then ever and the more restricted the devices of people are the better for the adds. Addblockers do not work on the YouTube app. Also adds have gotten far better, they are now paying to be integrated directly into content, making it far more effective by using the trust the viewer has built up towards the creator.
stubybubs 3y ago
I think it's going to get worse for social media. Lately I've been seeing more and more "content" suggested to me that is AI generated. Architecture that doesn't exist. People that don't exist in locations that don't exist wearing clothes that don't exist. I'm able to notice the slight unreality of it, its too-perfect look, and I check the tags and sure enough it's #midjourneyai or something. And I have this out of body experience. What am I doing with my time? It's vapid, empty content. I can never go to this place or see this thing or person, but it's presented as real as possible. It just kind of makes the whole thing seem absurd to me. At least in the past even if it was an influencer, I knew it was a real person or location, if a little Photoshopped. Now it just might as well be me daydreaming? It's hard to explain. It's kind of the end of meaning, I guess.
- avidiax 3y ago
  There is going to be an AI/AR/VR existential crisis in some people. The status quo is that we interact in 2 distinct ways. First, with a simulacra of a real object or people, but at a distance. That's video conferencing, texting, email, (mostly) social media, etc. Second, with simulations, i.e. video games, produced media (i.e. fake people played by real ones, photoshopped everything, post-produced CGI'd, etc.). The difference now is that the wall between these is going to fall, and it will be difficult to distinguish between the two going forward. Culture doesn't require that its basis is real. Some people are going to choose Religion 2.0, where they prefer the mediated experience to the unmediated one, and others will reject it. These two groups can't get along because even if values are shared, there will be a divergence of meaning.
- vineyardmike 3y ago
  > At least in the past even if it was an influencer, I knew it was a real person or location, if a little Photoshopped. Maybe not you specifically, but society generally: why does one follow an influencer? Surely they won’t meet that person, likely won’t go to that location, can’t afford those clothes etc…. And in answering those questions, does AI generated content still fill that requirement? I suspect yes for some. I do follow the occasional influencer and brand. Some because I want to peak into a glorious resort filled life I won’t have, others to see remarkable places I won’t go. If those were fake, maybe I’d feel better about FOMO. Some people (especially queer people) follow influencers to experience people and social groups who are like them, when they don’t see them in their normal life. AI content can’t replace that.
cosmodisk 3y ago
It's partially because of dilution. There are so many things out there seeking our attention. There aren't enough people on this planet to support it all.

by fwungy 3y ago

libraryatnight 3y ago

I don't generally have a good sense of where gen pop is heading, but recently the few social media type sites I still use are losing what little appeal they had. It's all just so boring and recycled.

wodenokoto 3y ago
I don’t think social media broadly is going away, but they are changing. Facebook kinda killed its own activity by pushing growth of their social graph. Over time it stopped being a place to connect with friends and just became… I don’t know. But it discourages user activity because family, friends, old classmates, guys you bumped into on a night out, ex’es all can see your activity. It’s not fun checking-in somewhere, posting funny pictures from last nights party or whatever because it is practically public. And my impression is young kids don’t like it either. You do your highlights reel on Instagram, but other than that, everything happens in private chat groups. Every meetup group I go to, every Facebook group I visit wants us to connect in a private chat group and have notifications every time someone says something. For this old fart, it’s exhausting to keep up with.
- arlcode 3y ago
  I feel like there is only so much "interesting" stuff going on in the lives of the people I care about. The need for SM companies to get more of my time requires them to shower me with increasingly irrelevant content to keep my engagement going up. At some point there is literally no additional time people can spend in SM (you can't get a time credit card). So more ads it is until the plattform is barely usable for someone not interested in the passively consumed avalanche of polished medicare. That's why chat groups are increasingly popular I think. You get to have a two way conservation with people who respond and care about you (at least a little bit). Meeting them in real live (or one on one online) also enforces the "authenticity" of the interaction. Therefore I expect Facebook to introduce lots of ads to WA very very soon.

winternett 3y ago

It's all been a lot of smoke and mirrors for ages now. There's nothing really that can prop up an empty ecosystem of encouraging people to work furiously for no reward or payout while only scammers and the rich win... The platforms have been allowing their own employees and leveraging bots and contracted employees as fake "winning" accounts/influencers while deeply manipulating genuine (unaffiliated) users to pay for visibility through making them buy ads to profit and/or look successful... Even sites that aren't really considered as social media, like YouTube and reddit, are guilty of these practices.

preommr 3y ago

I really struggle to understand how ads are still as big as they are. With the number of bots, adblockers, and straight up lies about the age of users, how are people not realizing that ads are not what they were when google/facebook were brand new.

constantcrying 3y ago
Adds are bigger then ever and the more restricted the devices of people are the better for the adds. Addblockers do not work on the YouTube app. Also adds have gotten far better, they are now paying to be integrated directly into content, making it far more effective by using the trust the viewer has built up towards the creator.

stubybubs 3y ago

I think it's going to get worse for social media. Lately I've been seeing more and more "content" suggested to me that is AI generated. Architecture that doesn't exist. People that don't exist in locations that don't exist wearing clothes that don't exist. I'm able to notice the slight unreality of it, its too-perfect look, and I check the tags and sure enough it's #midjourneyai or something. And I have this out of body experience. What am I doing with my time? It's vapid, empty content. I can never go to this place or see this thing or person, but it's presented as real as possible. It just kind of makes the whole thing seem absurd to me. At least in the past even if it was an influencer, I knew it was a real person or location, if a little Photoshopped. Now it just might as well be me daydreaming? It's hard to explain. It's kind of the end of meaning, I guess.

avidiax 3y ago
There is going to be an AI/AR/VR existential crisis in some people. The status quo is that we interact in 2 distinct ways. First, with a simulacra of a real object or people, but at a distance. That's video conferencing, texting, email, (mostly) social media, etc. Second, with simulations, i.e. video games, produced media (i.e. fake people played by real ones, photoshopped everything, post-produced CGI'd, etc.). The difference now is that the wall between these is going to fall, and it will be difficult to distinguish between the two going forward. Culture doesn't require that its basis is real. Some people are going to choose Religion 2.0, where they prefer the mediated experience to the unmediated one, and others will reject it. These two groups can't get along because even if values are shared, there will be a divergence of meaning.
vineyardmike 3y ago
> At least in the past even if it was an influencer, I knew it was a real person or location, if a little Photoshopped. Maybe not you specifically, but society generally: why does one follow an influencer? Surely they won’t meet that person, likely won’t go to that location, can’t afford those clothes etc…. And in answering those questions, does AI generated content still fill that requirement? I suspect yes for some. I do follow the occasional influencer and brand. Some because I want to peak into a glorious resort filled life I won’t have, others to see remarkable places I won’t go. If those were fake, maybe I’d feel better about FOMO. Some people (especially queer people) follow influencers to experience people and social groups who are like them, when they don’t see them in their normal life. AI content can’t replace that.

cosmodisk 3y ago

It's partially because of dilution. There are so many things out there seeking our attention. There aren't enough people on this planet to support it all.