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Social media decline: Users are shifting to messaging apps and group chats

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Re: Social media decline: Users are shifting to messaging apps and group chats

#91

Post by matsemann »

navaati wrote: post #43
matsemann wrote: post #29

I posted a lot on facebook in high school. Had maybe 50 friends there, like my classmates, soccer team etc. Posted at least once a day what I was doing, same did everyone else, and we discussed in during lunch next day. Or I would post a general "going to the soccer field, just join in", and we'll be a group there. Then joining university and getting new groups of friends, it didn't feel relevant to "spam" everyone w…

Why not remove these persons you don’t feel close to from your friends list ? When I was using facebook, after I moved in life, say going from highschool to university and my list grew with my new university acquaintances there, I pruned it from the acquaintances of the past life, high school people I knew didn’t matter so much to me once they were not part of my life anymore. So my friend list organically went throu…

Because I kinda want to keep up with their big events. Like kids, marriages, jobs, a new house or whatever. And I see some of them occasionally when "back home" and then it's nice to have kept somewhat superficially in touch. And fb works for that. It's just all the day-to-day stuff no one posts anymore.

Re: Social media decline: Users are shifting to messaging apps and group chats

#92

Post by bediger4000 »

I predict this trend to accelerate if "freedom of speech absolutism" gains more adherents, or the Netchoice vs Paxton case gets decided for Paxton.

People want topical forums, without getting dogpiled/brigaded. Both trend and case degrade the ability to enforce topicality and manners.

Re: Social media decline: Users are shifting to messaging apps and group chats

#93

Post by rsolva »

pxmpxm wrote: post #85
buro9 wrote: post #40

It might not be for everyone, but I'm posting more on social media than ever and seeing more engagement than ever... it's on the fediverse where smaller and safer communities are leading to much higher valuable engagement. I'm also finding it a lot more common for people to have multiple profiles / personas... the social one, the work one, the furry one, whatever is how you want to present yourself and to whom, witho…

Seems like the majority of mastodon content is mastodon enthusiasts posting about how good it is to post on mastodon... https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rembrandt-Wolpert/publi...

This was true for a couple of years, but lately, at least in my little part of the Fediverse, we have moved past the meta-talk.

Re: Social media decline: Users are shifting to messaging apps and group chats

#94

Post by philipov »

dathinab wrote: post #87
philipov wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Social Media is a word that means less than the sum of its parts. It is not just the word Media modified by being Social; it was invented to describe algorithmic feeds like Facebook and Twitter. Discord is not social media. Discord is a forum, a type of thing that existed before social media. Social Media's organizational principle is the user page, while Forums are organized by community and discussion topic. Reddit…

what you describe is not the definition of social media which I see commonly used, especially in a legal context technical details like weather it uses threads in the end IMHO doesn't matter for weather is social medi social media is internet media used is used for socializing which means that while classical forums are most times not social media but they can be discord is not a form, it gained forum functionality s…

So you think that even IRC and text messages on your phone are social media? Can't agree. Being a chat room is not enough. The social in "social media" stands for social network, not just any kind of social interaction at all. The key innovation with social media is using technology to leverage your social network for discovery and recommendation systems. You can't have social media without a social network platform through which it gets distributed.

EDIT: On reflection, the key point is that social media is an alternative to traditional media, like newspapers and magazines. The term refers to a way of publishing and distributing content. So I change my position that Reddit is indeed part of social media, not because you socialize on it, but because it is a platform primarily used for publishing/distributing content. Places where you just hang out with your friends on the internet are not content distribution platforms, however. (Unless the only interaction you have with your friends is sharing and discussing internet media.)

I propose this definition: Social Media is the practice of leveraging social network and community platforms to publish and distribute media.

While communication platforms like Discord might get roped into the social media ecosystem, sharing liking and subscribing is not its primary purpose. For something like Reddit and HN, it's easier to say that media distribution is the primary purpose, but not 100%. Going a step further, platforms like Youtube and Twitter are used for both publishing and distribution, so they're not just communication platforms, they're the end-to-end social media platforms.

Re: Social media decline: Users are shifting to messaging apps and group chats

#95

Post by pjc50 »

c4mpute wrote: post #12

I think this is an eternal cycle. Maybe related to what has been called "enshittification", but not the same: Users will flock to a platform, make it their own. The platform will grow. Then the advertisers, professionals, and hucksters will swoop in, do their thing, and slowly overshadow the old "normal" users. Then old users will leave, leaving a wasteland of ads and glossy shiny. I'd like to call it "glossification…

Someone deeper in the comments posted https://meaningness.com/geeks-mops-sociopaths , which describes the phenomenon well. Many years ago a similar lifecycle issue was noticed with "MUDs", the ancestor of MMOs: they lasted for a couple of years then users would gradually migrate elsewhere as the old place became "stale".

Social media is both a platform and a set of communities using it. If the health of public communities is not good, people will migrate away. I do think that the past decade of intensification of the "culture war" on social media has contributed to its destruction; people are simply exhausted, and new users (kids) who've grown up in a high-surveillance environment are less keen to post about themselves because it's an attack surface.

Re: Social media decline: Users are shifting to messaging apps and group chats

#96

Post by jack_riminton »

salawat wrote: post #89
Angostura wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they were a brand known for fairly high quality equipment that had a good reputation. They capitalised on their brand by producing increasingly inferior products

This is called "cashing out the goodwill of the brand". A steady decrease in quality of output while optimizing for minimum inputs in seek of alpha. A.k.a Welching. Gettin' the juice out.

Reminds me of the interview with Steve Jobs where he talks about large companies not caring about product because of their market position. Soon all that really matters is sales and marketing, so all the people that were good at making good products leave or get drowned out by bad decisions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4VBqTViEx4

Re: Social media decline: Users are shifting to messaging apps and group chats

#97

Post by philipov »

FrustratedMonky wrote: post #27
quchen wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is this not the same? It sounds exactly like I understand enshittification. Literally: > First, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die. (Source: https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-platforms-cory-doctorow/ ) Do you mean that the context here i…

They are definitely related. The social media 'enshitification' is a subset of all tech/industry 'enshitification' Think the Doctorow 'Enshitification' was more broader than just social media, and was all technology, even non-social apps eventually turn bad as the goals switch from being focused on the user and providing value, to corporate greed trying to extract money from the user.

Isn't enshittification simply the business cycle? It's describing in detail the why of the bust portion of the cycle.

Re: Social media decline: Users are shifting to messaging apps and group chats

#98

Post by cvhashim04 »

steveBK123 wrote: post #28
c4mpute wrote: post #12

I think this is an eternal cycle. Maybe related to what has been called "enshittification", but not the same: Users will flock to a platform, make it their own. The platform will grow. Then the advertisers, professionals, and hucksters will swoop in, do their thing, and slowly overshadow the old "normal" users. Then old users will leave, leaving a wasteland of ads and glossy shiny. I'd like to call it "glossification…

It is also an age/generation thing. FB was cool until your aunt was there. Then IG was cool until the same. TikTok probably well through that cycle. etc.

All the cool kids are on Locket

Re: Social media decline: Users are shifting to messaging apps and group chats

#99

Post by navaati »

matsemann wrote: post #91
navaati wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not remove these persons you don’t feel close to from your friends list ? When I was using facebook, after I moved in life, say going from highschool to university and my list grew with my new university acquaintances there, I pruned it from the acquaintances of the past life, high school people I knew didn’t matter so much to me once they were not part of my life anymore. So my friend list organically went throu…

Because I kinda want to keep up with their big events. Like kids, marriages, jobs, a new house or whatever. And I see some of them occasionally when "back home" and then it's nice to have kept somewhat superficially in touch. And fb works for that. It's just all the day-to-day stuff no one posts anymore.

Makes sense, thanks for your answer.

Re: Social media decline: Users are shifting to messaging apps and group chats

#100

Post by TjZkxkxeky »

iamflimflam1 wrote: post #19

There are a number of reasons. One big one is that a lot of content is now generated by professional outfits. Why would you post something you’ve made yourself when you are competing with big budget production companies or well funded creative marketing teams?

But..... marking teams don't have interesting things to say.. "competing", perhaps, but they aren't winning.
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