Social Media: A Game of Status

It’s ultimately a math question: are you more likely to find compelling content from the few hundred people in your social network, or from the millions of people posting on the service? The answer is obviously the latter, but that answer is only achievable if you have the means of discovering that compelling content, and, to be fair to both Facebo... See more

First, digital media enjoys the zero marginal costs of both software and content. Each incremental user to join Facebook, TikTok, or YouTube costs nothing. And when that user shares a piece of content, that content can reach a theoretically infinite number of people at zero cost. Some people would argue that these companies aren’t media companies, ... See more

Here’s the big change we all need to understand. The network itself is now the means of value creation, and thus wealth creation. Wealth, wisdom, power, and status all flow on the network...the big picture is that we can see each other and communicate about most things instantly and for zero marginal cost.

This is the status that comes from the community. It is the status of respect in return for contribution, for caring, for seeing and being in sync with others. Especially others with no ability to repay you. Modern society, urban society, the society of the internet, the arts, and innovation are all built primarily on affiliation, not dominion. Thi

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