This reminds me of an article I read yesterday.
https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2011/06/08/a-brief-history-of-the...
Ask HN: Has social media reached its saturation point?
11–20 of 72 posts
Re: Ask HN: Has social media reached its saturation point?
#12It's an interesting perspective. I think there's a few things going on that are slightly different maybe? Maybe not. I tend to think of it more that discrepancies between what the platforms are purported to be, and the actual use patterns and motives are, has grown to a point where it's getting scrutinized and having substantial pushback. Another way of looking at this is the limitations and drawbacks of current plat…
> even as things like TikTok are percolating up into media consciousness The problem with TikTok is that it's essentially just for actors, musicians and dancers. On Youtube people can Vlog, it's impossible to vlog on TikTok. I think among the many social media Facebook and Instagram manage to capture the most people. - Facebook/Instagram everybody can take a pic or draw some art, or a video or even engage in written…
Never thought I’d be stanning for TikTok, but it’s really not just dancing and thirst traps.
There are so many excellent creators on it. Nature focused. Rare book dealers showing their wares. Medievalists. And trades, showing you how things work (herding sheep, thatching roofs, general home repairs). Not to mention all the artists (drawing, painting, sculpting, pottery, stained glass, sewing, etc).
It really excels in the area of photoshop/illustrator tutorials as well. None of the YouTube bloat, just a quick 1 minute video that shows you exactly how to do one cool thing.
Yes the cool stuff is buried under dancing teenagers spitting memes, but there’s exceptional creative stuff on there and an audience that buys that stuff.
Re: Ask HN: Has social media reached its saturation point?
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
> even as things like TikTok are percolating up into media consciousness The problem with TikTok is that it's essentially just for actors, musicians and dancers. On Youtube people can Vlog, it's impossible to vlog on TikTok. I think among the many social media Facebook and Instagram manage to capture the most people. - Facebook/Instagram everybody can take a pic or draw some art, or a video or even engage in written…
Never thought I’d be stanning for TikTok, but it’s really not just dancing and thirst traps. There are so many excellent creators on it. Nature focused. Rare book dealers showing their wares. Medievalists. And trades, showing you how things work (herding sheep, thatching roofs, general home repairs). Not to mention all the artists (drawing, painting, sculpting, pottery, stained glass, sewing, etc). It really excels i…
One more: I’ve got a small print shop/publishing business. I’m interested in printing vinyl stickers but searching for “what machines should I be looking for and how should I judge them” has been an awful experience going face first into search engines.
But on TikTok, there are multiple small shops showing the machines they use, and how they use them on the daily. Talking about the problems they run into.
Re: Ask HN: Has social media reached its saturation point?
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
> even as things like TikTok are percolating up into media consciousness The problem with TikTok is that it's essentially just for actors, musicians and dancers. On Youtube people can Vlog, it's impossible to vlog on TikTok. I think among the many social media Facebook and Instagram manage to capture the most people. - Facebook/Instagram everybody can take a pic or draw some art, or a video or even engage in written…
Never thought I’d be stanning for TikTok, but it’s really not just dancing and thirst traps. There are so many excellent creators on it. Nature focused. Rare book dealers showing their wares. Medievalists. And trades, showing you how things work (herding sheep, thatching roofs, general home repairs). Not to mention all the artists (drawing, painting, sculpting, pottery, stained glass, sewing, etc). It really excels i…
No doubt they are there, but they are there by chance/habit (I think) not because the platform serves them well.
TikTok has all sorts of time limits and you can't even upload professionally shot content lasting more than x seconds. It's an app which revolves around the smartphone environment. That's very limiting
Instagram allows for much more flexibility.
Re: Ask HN: Has social media reached its saturation point?
#15We've given everyone who wanted a mediocre social media product, a mediocre social media product.
There are plenty of improvements one can make - but the power positions are all taken and it'll take 20-30 years for those useless idiots to die and/or retire.
The golden age of the internet is over and when they and/or life finally exhausts Elon Musk, there won't be anyone who isn't a useless idiot left that has any power.
We'll be right back where this species loves to be - useless idiots controlling the minds of the idiot masses, while the non-idiots quietly engage in creative pursuits.
Re: Ask HN: Has social media reached its saturation point?
#16Nope. FB would have gone the way of MySpace already if that were the case. Rather than a saturation point, they've hit a plateau in many cases- where will they go next? Zuckerberg is looking to reinvent FB for the next stage of growth. Instead of "moar better FB" he realizes that there needs to be something that's not just more, but different. And if he does it right, everyone will flock to it like so many did in the early FB days. Also, FB Marketplace is the new Craigslist in so many ways. Saturation point? No. Just maturing and ready for the next stage of evolution- whatever that will be.
Re: Ask HN: Has social media reached its saturation point?
#17Nope. FB would have gone the way of MySpace already if that were the case. Rather than a saturation point, they've hit a plateau in many cases- where will they go next? Zuckerberg is looking to reinvent FB for the next stage of growth. Instead of "moar better FB" he realizes that there needs to be something that's not just more, but different. And if he does it right, everyone will flock to it like so many did in the…
Isn't a saturation point a synonym for a plateau?
Once something is saturated with X, you cannot add any more X to it.
Re: Ask HN: Has social media reached its saturation point?
#18I think there's plenty of room for improvement in social media. At this point, it's all geared toward maximizing ad revenue, which is not closely aligned with maximizing utility for users.
> At this point, it's all geared toward maximizing ad revenue Well, you have to make money somehow and users will never pay for social media after having been spoiled for 15+ years by free Facebook , not to mention the 20+ years of free Google. When I paid for Linkedin Gold I felt scammed and canceled after a month. People are not willing to pay for marginal improvements, they are only willing to pay for very importa…
> Well, you have to make money somehow and users will never pay for social media
Somehow Mastodon has 3 millions of users despite those problems AFAIK, and growing exponentially.
Re: Ask HN: Has social media reached its saturation point?
#19Social media was not to broaden our relationships, it only allows us to hide from them. It is self censorship for a fragile, trauma plagued humanity.
The platforms are not changing, people are. They are tired of these superficial interactions.
Re: Ask HN: Has social media reached its saturation point?
#20It has to be at the saturation point for at least Facebook. Facebook is old news. Anyone who wants a Facebook account has one, anyone who wants to engage in the platform is already doing so. However the younger people understand now that posting things on public social media can have consequences, so things like Discord and Telegram are now going to be the future, and classic social media like Facebook is simply goin…
I'm older and have bailed on social media (I use it as a write-only broadcast medium). The posts there I want to see are lost in the manipulative noise.
I'm in several small clique channels on discord and slack, including one for my extended family, instead. I've been wondering how common these are getting.