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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

#201

Post by rpastuszak »

SeanAnderson wrote: post #171
rpastuszak wrote: post #47

0. It's been 15 years and I still don't know how to use Twitter. 1. Most of my online social interactions come from people interacting with my work (writing, code, drawings) through: - my say hi calls ( https://sonnet.io/posts/hi ) - Mastodon Quality > quantity ("the Internet is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly hugely mindboggingly big it is.", i.e. small niches are big enough) Not every company nee…

Hello :) I just wanted to let you know that I intend to reach out and say hi to you soon. Your website resonated with me and I think we'll click in our conversation. I'm travelling for a week come tomorrow, but when I am back in town I'll book something. Cheers

Roger that, speak soon!

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

#202

Post by CharlesW »

neogodless wrote: post #165
mancerayder wrote: post #154

I've been observing a pattern that I've been trying to articulate here and I can best describe as a framework where stuff 'comes to you' whereas the Internet for a long time was an enabler of 'you go to stuff'. The pendulum swung back, thanks to ad tech, and centralization, that have or are trying to orchestrate a culture shift. Okay, here are some concrete examples. 1. Television/cable (absent a TiVo type device), t…

Overall I think this is related to a personal choice to consume or create. Of course with DVDs/streaming or social media, a lot of it is naturally going to be consumption no matter what. But the medium kind of steers you towards one or the other. Social media seemed like a way for you to express yourself, to create and share, but the algorithms nudged everyone into endless consumption scrolling. Creativity is only re…

> Overall I think this is related to a personal choice to consume or create.

Or maybe "consume" vs. "create/curate", the former being passive and the latter being proactive to different degrees.

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

#203

Post by incongruity »

mancerayder wrote: post #154

I've been observing a pattern that I've been trying to articulate here and I can best describe as a framework where stuff 'comes to you' whereas the Internet for a long time was an enabler of 'you go to stuff'. The pendulum swung back, thanks to ad tech, and centralization, that have or are trying to orchestrate a culture shift. Okay, here are some concrete examples. 1. Television/cable (absent a TiVo type device), t…

FWIW, I’ve always seen it best described as push vs. pull. You’ve expanded the idea a bit but I think it’s still a good distinction and useful for what you’re getting at.

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

#204

Post by koofdoof »

mancerayder wrote: post #154

I've been observing a pattern that I've been trying to articulate here and I can best describe as a framework where stuff 'comes to you' whereas the Internet for a long time was an enabler of 'you go to stuff'. The pendulum swung back, thanks to ad tech, and centralization, that have or are trying to orchestrate a culture shift. Okay, here are some concrete examples. 1. Television/cable (absent a TiVo type device), t…

Walter Benjamin wrote about this all the way back in the 1930s. He observed that early art like frescos painted on walls and sculptures in temples require the viewer to travel to them, but they gave way to paintings on canvas and busts that could travel to cities to meet audiences where they were.

Technology continued to push this trend, reproducing art through photography and printing in books and newspapers let it move even further to meet people in their own homes.

These current patterns you are seeing are an extension of this, the relationship between art and viewer has inverted, art is now expected to come to us, the focus has moved to within ourselves.

Marshall McLuhan also expanded on this and the idea of technology as extensions of us with his work "Understanding Media: The Extension of Man" if you'd like to read more.

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

#206

Post by cfeduke »

thefz wrote: post #184

Best definition of "content" I ever heard: https://youtu.be/kHe4wwF9O6Q?t=149 "content is a commodity that fills social media feeds so we can be sold as a collection of preferences [...] attention but not understanding, engagement but not exploration" Every time I hear "content creator" I perceive it as Styrofoam. Filler used to convey a product.

> Every time I hear "content creator" I perceive it as Styrofoam. Filler used to convey a product.

This is so good. Perfect. I love it.

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

#207

Post by JohnMakin »

MockObject wrote: post #175
pmarreck wrote: post #148

Anecdotal data of 1 but I still post to FB and Twitter (uh, X) fairly often. I never got into IG (too superficial, and I actually prefer discussion). Tried Threads for a couple days and it never latched. Reddit (arguably accidentally) permabanned me across all my accounts after I accidentally used a different login to post to a sub I had been (debatably, mods can be jerks) banned on 1 of my accounts in a long while b…

Reddit completely deleted all your accounts for this accident?

It's extremely difficult to get reddit banned, let alone this - OP is telling on themselves

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

#208

Post by tracker1 »

Social media seems to be pushing a bunch of content that isn't the people that I actively follow. Twitter, I mean X keeps switching me back to the "For You" tab, and Facebook changed their page/group interface that switches my profile out every time I don't pay attention for a second and I see a feed of random. I can't speak for any of the rest as I generally don't use much else.

Given that case, of course I'm less likely to engage on social media. I'm much less there to interact with random strangers. Of course so many people don't go out and do anything anymore, don't engage with people around them when they do, and may be put off if on the other side. It's a really weird time to be alive to say the least. And that doesn't even get into culture issues that most people don't care about, but those that are active in social media are nearly obsessed about (including myself at times).

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

#209

Post by r00fus »

bmacho wrote: post #173
nicbou wrote: post #49

An online community should feel like an online pub. It should have a vibe, some regulars, inside jokes, and a decorum that is somewhat well enforced. They're cosy places where a sense of belonging encourages participation and good behaviour. HN is like that. Small subreddits are like that. Group chats are like that. But now every social media website became like that one pedestrian street with the H&M and the McDonal…

> An online community should feel like an online pub. It should have a vibe, some regulars, inside jokes, and a decorum that is somewhat well enforced. They're cosy places where a sense of belonging encourages participation and good behaviour. > HN is like that. HN is the only place that is not a pub: jokes are frowned upon, and even moderated out. Post Valuable Content, or GTFO. You can joke and feel belonging liter…

> HN is way the driest and most soulless.

Well if you are looking for memes and catposts, yeah, the S/N ratio here is quite low.

Honestly I think of those things as noise, so I see S/N of HN as much higher. I can always go elsewhere for the vibes.

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

#210

Post by usea »

mancerayder wrote: post #154

I've been observing a pattern that I've been trying to articulate here and I can best describe as a framework where stuff 'comes to you' whereas the Internet for a long time was an enabler of 'you go to stuff'. The pendulum swung back, thanks to ad tech, and centralization, that have or are trying to orchestrate a culture shift. Okay, here are some concrete examples. 1. Television/cable (absent a TiVo type device), t…

A similar concept is whether something is a "tool" or not.

Tools are things that you use to accomplish tasks. They behave predictably, and you can become skilled in using it more effectively.

Non-tools are things that try to adapt to you. They're optimized for first-time users, or to create an "experience". You cannot go fast with them, even with familiarity. They don't act in your best interests.

A hammer is a tool. Excel is a tool. Google search used to be a tool, but it's been more non-tool for the better part of a decade.

Sometimes people want non-tools. It varies with person and task. But in general, long-term users tend to prefer tool-like uses.

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