Social Media
Essays and more on social media
Packy McCormick and
Social Media
people think the solution to the web becoming a big performance stage is to have lots of fragmented smaller communities. But finding the right community is really hard. A better way is to use novel technologies and network mechanics to matchmake in real-time. You get a new community every second depending on what you’re thinking.
In 2006, the launch of YouTube promised a democratization of creativity. Anyone with an internet connection could now share their work with the world, bypassing traditional gatekeepers in publishing, music, and film. Over the next two decades, platforms like Netflix, Spotify, and Instagram further dismantled barriers, offering creators direct acces... See more
Dr. Felix S. Grenwood • Algorithms of Mediocrity — william
Hamish McKenzie: On social media, posers are often given the most status points, and so we’re left with a misleading idea of authority; it seems the people who are loudest in their claims to be experts — the ones we hear from most on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube — are the ones to be most wary of. When self-proclaimed experts are ultimately reveal... See more
Youyang Gu • 21 Experts on the Future of Expertise - Future
Advertisers love how non-paid content blurs with paid content because it makes their ads feel more "authentic." Platforms love it because advertisers love it.
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Gotta say, it feels like we missed an opportunity to reinvent social. Can you tell them apart?
“The internet, as we have known it, has evolved from a quaint, quirky place to a social utopia, and then to an algorithmic reality. In this reality, the primary task of these platforms is not about idealism or even entertainment — it is about extracting as much revenue as possible from human vanity, avarice, and narcissism.”
Quick Links for Wednesday, January 3
slapping the table, easy way to put it about the current state of the internet
Ritual is vital because it gives us a sense that we belong to the world. A sense of connectedness, whether to society, nature or the divine, is in turn linked to a sense of psychological wholeness and lower rates of mental illness.
Social media offers the opposite; connection without relatedness.
Alexander Beiner • Myth and Metrics: How Social Media Robs Us of Ritual, and How to Revive It
Stop trying to make social networks succeed, stop dreaming of a universal network. Instead, invest in your own communities. Help them make long-term, custom and sustainable solutions. Try to achieve small and local successes instead of pursuing an imaginary universal one. It will make you happier.
It will make all of us happier.
It will make all of us happier.