In our particular moment of 21st Century technological, agricultural, manufacturing, energy, demographic, labor, environmental, cultural, health, dietary (etc) evolution, there are multiple shifts happening. When we look back, I think a number of them will look like either a subtle, or a large change in direction. I’d like to try to capture them at this moment of inflection. So once in a while, I will post an article on ‘inflection points’ it seems we’re encountering.
Clearly, we’ve been in a bit of a funk with social media for a while.
The use of social media rose dramatically in the 2000s, with MySpace kicking off much of what has become a familiar format for social networking (in 2003), but then quickly falling to Facebook dominance in 2008.
LinkedIn was launched in 2002, Twitter was launched in 2006, Instagram in 2010, Pinterest in 2010, Snapchat in 2011, TikTok in 2018, and the list goes on….though not indefinitely. Most people still spend the majority of their social media time on one or more of those mentioned above.
How we use those sites has evolved significantly though. Facebook - once just a way to connect with friends - became a place to buy and sell. Pinterest - once just a place to pin interesting things from the web - became the marketing platform for online chefs, and courses in crafting, as well as…..so much else. LinkedIn is now not just a way to connect with potential colleagues and employers but now celebrates ‘INfluencers’ across various topics.
And of course, everything - Facebook, Twitter, Insta etc offers you the option to like, love, share, or otherwise show your approval of other people’s content.
It makes sense that these platforms have evolved to give purpose to our connection. Connection by itself can be a bit hollow. Without something meaningful around which to congregate, there can be less to hold us together.
But now we’re tired.
We’re tired of witnessing the basest of human instincts illustrated by ‘thumbs-ups’ to hate speech, tired of seeing more ads than friends, tired of their algorithms and our own echo-chambers and the constant ding and ping of notifications celebrating that someone, somewhere is having a more instagram-worthy day than we are.
But there’s still something very compelling about social media, beyond the addictive pings, the validation of ‘likes’, and the car-wreck-like horror of the trolls.
Twitter and Co really do serve important purposes: emergency notifications from local media stations and first responders, a place to organize for activism (see Bill McKibben’s thoughts on this on his Substack newsletter), a place to find something to laugh at (see the Buffalo snow pics from my Friday post), a place to keep up with news and high school friends.
So what’s next? Or is there a chance that this suddenly even deeper murk of morons will shallow out again and give us back our digital communities, devoid of drama?
It’s hard for me to imagine that the trolls will let up without being forced to do so, but maybe they will be forced, or maybe it will get tiring for them too. I have no idea.
I DO think that this is opening up more questions for most of us though: Why are each of us using social media (primarily)? Is it for business, or news, or staying in touch with friends? Is it for organizing? Is it for engaging with others of similar interests?
Answering for myself, I have drifted away from social media in general lately, so my answer has become….not really any of the above. I used Facebook mostly for staying up with what friends were up to, and I still check in occasionally, but I find, with a few exceptions, that I’m in touch with most of the people I can really keep up with anyway. I use Pinterest for ideas and DIY reference items, but the ads and the sales pitches on that have become annoying. I definitely use YouTube for a ‘how to’ guide for all sorts of things (winterizing my camper was the most recent!), but on none of them do I find much community - perhaps a little still with Facebook groups (local birding, teardrop campers etc), and a little with LinkedIn perhaps.
My sense though, is that we’re ready to move on. New ‘open source’ social networking sites, and small scale social media apps have emerged, though from the few I have looked at, they are either a bit clunky or have their own problems at the moment. Perhaps one or more will find its way.
Platforms like Substack might be a new way of connecting around topics and people, but it requires a writer be at the center, so it’s not quite the same as a free-forming agglomeration of friends or interest groups. Substack just introduced a chat feature though, which might be interesting to explore especially for newsletters that have a good variety of subscribers.
Mobile messaging apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger allow groups of friends to connect privately, and I’m certainly seeing more of that personally. We have a biz group that uses WhatsApp and a family group. Apps like Voxer (a realtime messaging/voicemail/walkietalkie service) are also part of this trend.
If I had to project into the future (and I don’t, but I’m going to anyway!), I am feeling the pendulum swing in two directions:
1) Topic-based connections. These become more like clubs than the free-for-all-forum idea we’re used to. So it’s social networking but in much narrower and more directed ways. You choose the area of alignment first and then see who’s there, rather than choosing a platform of broad connection first and only then seeing if there’s a ‘group’ that likes the same things you do.
2) ‘Chosen family’ chats. These form around groups who already know each other - like families, or groups of friends who have a purpose (or specific shared history) for connecting. You could have a Class of ‘99 chat, or a Family News, or a Clean Energy Colleagues Chat or something - but they would have to initially form around a connector - someone who has the ability to bring people they know together.
Among the downsides of these two trends would be less exposure to topics that we didn’t know we were interested in, but if a topic-based platform were well-designed, you could always explore and discover new topics (Substack is quite good at this actually).
If this IS how things develop (wouldn’t that be amazing, and completely unlikely, if I could predict that!?), it would open up all sorts of opportunities - as the current modes of social media have done - for different people to shine, show leadership, connect for good, and share ideas.
And that for me, is the point. Social networking and social media have to share and connect us to the previously hidden, the quirky and newfangled, the important and valuable, the inspiring and the fun.
Surely that’s when it will truly have traction for more than five minutes.
I look forward to what’s ‘Beyond Twitter’
Sources:
https://online.maryville.edu/blog/evolution-social-media/
Amen.... I haven’t thought about it in quite this way, but your observation - “and we’re tired” - instantly rang true. I think our constant quick skate across the top of the water in all things social, without ever diving deep for a satisfying swim, is in itself draining. (Not even addressing the impact on relationships here.) And I am sick to death of the sheer meanness and ugliness people seem to drop into so easily on line. It’s exhausting, and depressing.
I think my own obsession is around the news, and we all know that’s not healthy either. Trying to reign it in, putting in more thinking time (that satisfying swim in deeper water) with meditation, yoga, and even short daily walks. Reading your thoughtful posts, and those of only 1-2 others, does the same.
Thank you for this, AW.