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Social Quitting

locusmag.com

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Re: Social Quitting

#21

Post by Isamu »

photochemsyn wrote: post #16

> "Twitter got bought out by a low-attention-span, overconfident billionaire who started pulling out Jenga blocks to see whether the system would fall over, and when it did, we all got crushed by the falling blocks." I've spent years mocking Twitter for it's short character limit (designed IMO for the low-attention-span trend) and the siloizing/bunkering effect of Facebook and groups (where never a contrary opinion i…

>designed IMO for the low-attention-span trend

Actually the original idea was about posting to the web from SMS, back in the days of limited message size

Re: Social Quitting

#23

Post by ekianjo »

mkl95 wrote: post #20
ekianjo wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A social network does not have to dominate the whole world to be useful and profitable.

It may be useful, but Twitter has not turned a profit for about four years.

I believe Musk is actively trying to change that. Whether he succeeds or not remains to be seen

Re: Social Quitting

#24

Post by zeruch »

ekianjo wrote: post #19
Swizec wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. But a thriving social network that does not make.

A social network does not have to dominate the whole world to be useful and profitable.

That applies to all commerce really, but the SV philosophy is "growth like a cordyceps on meth", so...

Re: Social Quitting

#25

Post by lanstin »

ekianjo wrote: post #13

> As I type these words, a mass exodus is underway from Twitter and Facebook. No. Given that the number of Twitter users is increasing the premise of this article is false.

Mastodon has seen pretty solid increases in usage rhe last month or so. Certainly a lot of journalists, cs folks, and science people.

and i believe Facebook usage has declined to the point it is discussed on earnings calls.

Even very large and successful networked media companies can wither away (source: I worked at AOL once)

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46565/ozymandias

Re: Social Quitting

#26

Post by chime »

Isamu wrote: post #21
photochemsyn wrote: post #16

> "Twitter got bought out by a low-attention-span, overconfident billionaire who started pulling out Jenga blocks to see whether the system would fall over, and when it did, we all got crushed by the falling blocks." I've spent years mocking Twitter for it's short character limit (designed IMO for the low-attention-span trend) and the siloizing/bunkering effect of Facebook and groups (where never a contrary opinion i…

>designed IMO for the low-attention-span trend Actually the original idea was about posting to the web from SMS, back in the days of limited message size

And a precursor to group texting before it existed and when texts were 10c each for most people not on an unlimited plan.

Re: Social Quitting

#27

Post by mkl95 »

ekianjo wrote: post #23
mkl95 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may be useful, but Twitter has not turned a profit for about four years.

I believe Musk is actively trying to change that. Whether he succeeds or not remains to be seen

I wonder what Musk's plan looks like. ~90% of Twitter's revenue comes from ads, and they are not doing too well since Musk took over. He may have to double down on non Western markets where large companies are still willing to work with him.

Re: Social Quitting

#28

Post by travisgriggs »

wrycoder wrote: post #9
29athrowaway wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And before, many people were on ICQ, MSN, AOL, etc. Then before that you got BBSes, CompuServe, Minitel, etc. And before that you probably got Ham radio.

Don’t forget IRC, USENET, and plain old email lists, like Mailman.

comp.lang.*

I miss thee. Pre-the-spam that is.

Re: Social Quitting

#29

Post by subpixel »

Swizec wrote: post #12
nostrapollo wrote: post #5

Hard to tell from my phone but are there any sources for the ‘exodus’ numbers? I don’t get the same impression that this post is laying out.

It’s a vibe shift. The hard numbers may not be there (yet?), but the early signs are. Facebook has been dead for years, unless you count instagram. Twitter never actually caught on with the normies. Gen Z is on TikTok. In my friend groups everything that used to happen on Facebook now happens on private WhatsApp, iMessage, and Slack groups.

Facebook is still a thriving host of non-technical communities and classifieds. The features and experience across both of those use cases are constantly being degraded and are user-hostile, but FB is still winning.

Something in the vein of Discord will eventually replace FB groups, I think.

Classified is probably the service best protected by the most of FB’s network effect.

Re: Social Quitting

#30

Post by petre »

Swizec wrote: post #12
nostrapollo wrote: post #5

Hard to tell from my phone but are there any sources for the ‘exodus’ numbers? I don’t get the same impression that this post is laying out.

It’s a vibe shift. The hard numbers may not be there (yet?), but the early signs are. Facebook has been dead for years, unless you count instagram. Twitter never actually caught on with the normies. Gen Z is on TikTok. In my friend groups everything that used to happen on Facebook now happens on private WhatsApp, iMessage, and Slack groups.

When your president has a social media profile and regularily uses it, then that particular platform is dead.
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