Bit of a different post here. It has to do with the echo-chamber that has become the landscape of Social Media. As someone who has been in an on-again/off-again relationship with regards to usage of Social Media, I really thought hard about why I haven’t really committed to it at all.
Take twitter for example. I have had an account on the platform since it began, and have engaged and interact with creators as we are supposed to when I find something interesting, informative or funny. In the beginning, everything worked as expected, and small circles of common-folk interacted regularly.
Then, as the world of social media began to expand and more services were introduced, things began to change. These companies became beholden to their shareholders, angel investors and advertisers. Forced to drift away from what I really believe was their initial motivation for being innovative and community focused. Now it was about being as rich as imorally possible.
Naturally, to stay relevant, innovative technology began to be introduced. But not for the benefit of the community, but to generate as much revenue as efficiently as possible. Bots, Ads and algorithms all tweaked to generate revenue. I get it. We live in a capitalistic society.
Today, its all about the clicks, views and capturing more and more numbers, by any means necessary on and off of these platforms. No more clear than with the introduction of the concept of Influencers. Now, for a percentage of the profit, a few selected individuals are paid pennies on the millions to focus on nothing but content all day long.
But this isn’t the real world. There are millions of individuals in this world with true practical and professional value and skills to contribute to society who are just figthing to have a voice in the echo-chamber to share knowledge and improve the human condition.
I find this evolution interesting to reflect on. How we ended up where we are today, and what that means for the professionals of the world who innovate in other ways to actually advance society. This “new social world order” has come at the cost of community.
Tolerance and acceptance of other cultures, histories or “tribes” to advance the overall human condition does not make money. They are developed to find and highlight differences or ’triggers’ designed to control emotions and generate reactions or, dare I say, more clicks and comments. Battles between tribes.
It’s a very clear strategy that is utilized to benefit these social platforms, and I am convinced that algorithms will always be tweaked to promote the negative emotions in people just for the sake of more views and clicks. As humans, I am not convinced we are ready as a mature society for the benefits of things like algorithms and innovations that take-over an individuals rational thought and common sense. But all hope is not completely lost.
More and more, rational individuals tired of the constant anxiety and drama and emotionally manipulative technologies are opening their eyes and looking for intellectual conversation and interactional dialog far away from manipulative methods driven by greed.
To be open to listening and not reacting to others. Services like Mastodon and Discord are allowing individuals to take back control of the conversation and form tribes of like-minded individuals tired of the noise.