5 ms·

Social media won because it's better for the consumer and producer. For the producer, it's free infrastructure but it's also advertising. Having a large subred

Social media won because it's better for the consumer and producer. For the producer, it's free infrastructure but it's also advertising. Having a large subreddit means your game getting recommended to others and potentially being seen being introduced to more people. For the consumer, these social media sites do usually do provide a better experience in showing people what they want to see and keeping away stuff they don't. I'm sympathetic to forums just because I think if someone likes something they shouldn't need to join a potentially social media site with potentially toxic designs and sub-communities. But these are negative internalities that people mostly ignore.

Robotbeat 3mo ago
Social media is more addictive. That's a huge reason it won.
- Gigachad 3mo ago
  I was discussing with a friend how I'm saddened that all the independent art websites basically died out. While they still exist, they are a shadow of their former selves while the viewers and artists all moved to Twitter, a website that is absolutely horrible as a replacement. But it's just impossible to compete with the fact all eyeballs have been moved to social media so you are either on it or you aren't seen. Even if as a viewer you have to scroll past 20 political bots for every one genuine art piece you see.
neya 3mo ago
Social media has censorship, which most old school forums couldn't simply replicate with volume, even with moderators in place. So, a lot of times you will find unfiltered discussion about certain topics as opposed to a controlled narrative you will get on social media.
- dawnerd 3mo ago
  Lot of forums would even solve it by having anything goes sections.
- enaaem 3mo ago
  Old school forums would definitely ban you for bad behaviour. Comments like "Dumbass XD" that you would see on X all the time, will simply be removed. Old school forums were also regulated by reputation, which means people had to put effort into their posts. This discourage low effort trolling and rage bait. If you had some crazy takes, people will eventually make fun of you. There was a time on 9gag where it was flooded with anti-trans posts. That could never happen forums, because people would ask why OP is so obsessed with trans people.
donatj 3mo ago
Does this hold true in the modern age though? I haven't seen a single thing I wanted to see on social media basically since COVID. It's all famous people, posturing, and things I never followed. Entirely crap I don't care about. At this point I open Facebook like once a day. I used to go on Instagram to see my friend's pictures, now there's nothing of my friends on there and I'll just spam and AI slop... All I want is to see what my friends and acquaintances are up to and it doesn't show me any of that. I think the kids are using discord for this, but as a 40-year-old non-gamer, I'm not going to get my friends to use discord. I genuinely feel like there's a major gap in the market for an actual "social" network.
- socalgal2 3mo ago
  FYI: In Instagram (the mobile app) click the instagram log and pick "Following" and you only see those you follow (and a few ads), no random social media slop on Facebook (the mobile app), click the 3 bars icon and pick "Feed". Same thing, friends, whatever groups you're following, a few ads, no social media slop Web apps have the same option. X as well There's no way to make these the default as they are trying to get you addicted to the social media slop. But, you can still use them as "social networks" (which is the only reason I keep them)
  - frabcus 3mo ago
    This being a news site for hackers, I should point out you can use browser plugins to change the default feed. And (if you use an Android phone, but maybe there's a way with Safari?) you can run those plugins (at least on Firefox), so you can have the experience you want on mobile too! I made one of these (called Instalamb for Instagram), but haven't maintained it recently as there wasn't much interest. There are plenty of others though. I think my biggest disappointment with social media is not that capitalism made it harmful and addictive (that was inevitable), but that most people don't seem to care enough to even install an advert blocker, never mind something to make their feed cleaner. Despite having had a better experience before, and it being much easier to do than many things people do all the time in their daily lives.
    - 3mo ago
root_axis 3mo ago
> Social media won because it's better for the consumer and producer. It's not even a question of "winning", the overwhelming share of people that came online after the advent of social media did so for social media - they never had any interest in niche phpbb style forums.
LooseMarmoset 3mo ago
Social media won because it is better and more profitable for the producer/site owner. It is objectively worse for the consumer: * Algorithms that push content the user didn't ask for/dark patterns * Prioritizes low-attention span/doomscrolling * Magnifies the most virulent outrage-driven content, often by the very people that commit the outrage, and profits from that outrage Social media as currently implemented by everyone is a cancer.
- xandrius 3mo ago
  I don't think you were there when the switch started to happen in the mid 2000s. All these are things which came after they "won".
- kjshsh123 3mo ago
  Like I said, these are negative internalities. I don't think most users care about these negative impacts on themselves.
tiew9Vii 3mo ago
Social media is junk for the consumer. Facebook groups has taken over a lot of the old automotive forums as they shutdown due to running/maintenance costs. They were a treasure trove of information. Facebook groups makes it impossible to find information. The search simply doesn’t work and doesn’t even try to work. Seen something posted before, good luck finding it again. They’ve now removed chronological ordering option, your choice is algorithmic feed or algorithmic feed. That means you view it once you get some content, view it again, get different content, based on some unknown heuristic. Forums are great for the consumer. Publicly indexable, easy to find content you know exists, easy to find historic content. Easy to interact with. Social media only cares about new (fresh) content that drives engagement (clicks,views,shares) that it can put an advert on. Great for mindless doom scrolling, not so great for the treasure trove of easy searchable information forums were.

Robotbeat 3mo ago

Social media is more addictive. That's a huge reason it won.

Gigachad 3mo ago
I was discussing with a friend how I'm saddened that all the independent art websites basically died out. While they still exist, they are a shadow of their former selves while the viewers and artists all moved to Twitter, a website that is absolutely horrible as a replacement. But it's just impossible to compete with the fact all eyeballs have been moved to social media so you are either on it or you aren't seen. Even if as a viewer you have to scroll past 20 political bots for every one genuine art piece you see.

neya 3mo ago

Social media has censorship, which most old school forums couldn't simply replicate with volume, even with moderators in place. So, a lot of times you will find unfiltered discussion about certain topics as opposed to a controlled narrative you will get on social media.

dawnerd 3mo ago
Lot of forums would even solve it by having anything goes sections.
enaaem 3mo ago
Old school forums would definitely ban you for bad behaviour. Comments like "Dumbass XD" that you would see on X all the time, will simply be removed. Old school forums were also regulated by reputation, which means people had to put effort into their posts. This discourage low effort trolling and rage bait. If you had some crazy takes, people will eventually make fun of you. There was a time on 9gag where it was flooded with anti-trans posts. That could never happen forums, because people would ask why OP is so obsessed with trans people.

donatj 3mo ago

Does this hold true in the modern age though? I haven't seen a single thing I wanted to see on social media basically since COVID. It's all famous people, posturing, and things I never followed. Entirely crap I don't care about. At this point I open Facebook like once a day. I used to go on Instagram to see my friend's pictures, now there's nothing of my friends on there and I'll just spam and AI slop... All I want is to see what my friends and acquaintances are up to and it doesn't show me any of that. I think the kids are using discord for this, but as a 40-year-old non-gamer, I'm not going to get my friends to use discord. I genuinely feel like there's a major gap in the market for an actual "social" network.

socalgal2 3mo ago
FYI: In Instagram (the mobile app) click the instagram log and pick "Following" and you only see those you follow (and a few ads), no random social media slop on Facebook (the mobile app), click the 3 bars icon and pick "Feed". Same thing, friends, whatever groups you're following, a few ads, no social media slop Web apps have the same option. X as well There's no way to make these the default as they are trying to get you addicted to the social media slop. But, you can still use them as "social networks" (which is the only reason I keep them)
- frabcus 3mo ago
  This being a news site for hackers, I should point out you can use browser plugins to change the default feed. And (if you use an Android phone, but maybe there's a way with Safari?) you can run those plugins (at least on Firefox), so you can have the experience you want on mobile too! I made one of these (called Instalamb for Instagram), but haven't maintained it recently as there wasn't much interest. There are plenty of others though. I think my biggest disappointment with social media is not that capitalism made it harmful and addictive (that was inevitable), but that most people don't seem to care enough to even install an advert blocker, never mind something to make their feed cleaner. Despite having had a better experience before, and it being much easier to do than many things people do all the time in their daily lives.
  - 3mo ago

root_axis 3mo ago

> Social media won because it's better for the consumer and producer. It's not even a question of "winning", the overwhelming share of people that came online after the advent of social media did so for social media - they never had any interest in niche phpbb style forums.

LooseMarmoset 3mo ago

Social media won because it is better and more profitable for the producer/site owner. It is objectively worse for the consumer: * Algorithms that push content the user didn't ask for/dark patterns * Prioritizes low-attention span/doomscrolling * Magnifies the most virulent outrage-driven content, often by the very people that commit the outrage, and profits from that outrage Social media as currently implemented by everyone is a cancer.

xandrius 3mo ago
I don't think you were there when the switch started to happen in the mid 2000s. All these are things which came after they "won".
kjshsh123 3mo ago
Like I said, these are negative internalities. I don't think most users care about these negative impacts on themselves.

tiew9Vii 3mo ago

Social media is junk for the consumer. Facebook groups has taken over a lot of the old automotive forums as they shutdown due to running/maintenance costs. They were a treasure trove of information. Facebook groups makes it impossible to find information. The search simply doesn’t work and doesn’t even try to work. Seen something posted before, good luck finding it again. They’ve now removed chronological ordering option, your choice is algorithmic feed or algorithmic feed. That means you view it once you get some content, view it again, get different content, based on some unknown heuristic. Forums are great for the consumer. Publicly indexable, easy to find content you know exists, easy to find historic content. Easy to interact with. Social media only cares about new (fresh) content that drives engagement (clicks,views,shares) that it can put an advert on. Great for mindless doom scrolling, not so great for the treasure trove of easy searchable information forums were.