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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

#231

Post by lambic »

VoodooJuJu wrote: post #187
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…

I think online communities aren't. A pub is a healthy, proper, community experience. Any human interaction that isn't face-to-face is injurious to your health.

I very strongly disagree, without online interactions I probably would've gone crazy during lockdown. Even now that's all (mostly) over, I still rely on online interaction for communicating with most of my family.

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

#233

Post by Zambyte »

kelseyfrog wrote: post #217
brap wrote: post #215

My Facebook feed is about 40% sponsored posts, 30% suggested posts, 30% group posts (usually from very large groups), and then maybe 1% actual friends (and it’s usually just something that they’ve shared or commented on, almost never actual content). If we could go back to the days when 80% of the stuff you see is from friends with the remaining being ads, I would happily use FB more frequently and I’m sure most of m…

My mastodon feed is 100% actual friends. That reality exists; it's just not evenly distributed yet.

My Pleroma feed is not 100% actual friends of mine, but that's because I choose to follow certain organizations or public figures. The Fediverse is great because it's exactly what you make of it.

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

#234

Post by paganel »

brap wrote: post #215

My Facebook feed is about 40% sponsored posts, 30% suggested posts, 30% group posts (usually from very large groups), and then maybe 1% actual friends (and it’s usually just something that they’ve shared or commented on, almost never actual content). If we could go back to the days when 80% of the stuff you see is from friends with the remaining being ads, I would happily use FB more frequently and I’m sure most of m…

> How did we end up like this?

Because sharing personal stuff privately, on group chats, groups made up of close friends, family etc., is the normal thing to do, sharing our personal stuff on FB, IG and the like was the exception. No, it was definitely not ok to share photos of one's unborn baby on FB/IG for almost anyone to see, that was creepy.

Glad that things are returning to a sort of normal.

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

#235

Post by JKCalhoun »

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…

> How will a world in which Things Come to Us and We Dont Go to Things anymore affect us cognitively long-term?

Goodbye serendipity.

Probably goodbye creativity.

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

#236

Post by rpjt »

sznio wrote: post #81
pxmpxm wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. All people want is to be able to see pics of their friends and kids from whatever vacation they're on, preferably in chronological order.

But then you'd just come in for 10 minutes a day and be done. Can't earn money on such healthy engagement.

People say they want this but I'm not actually sure that they do. Didn't FB do some study about this?

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

#237

Post by brewtide »

brap wrote: post #224
kamma4434 wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same for me. Lately my feed is full of Formula One and Debbie Harris of Blondie fame, neither of which is an actual interest of mine. And basically no content from people I care about.

Oh yeah, this is definitely a great observation. Once in a while FB decides I have a new interest and shoves A TON of suggested content in my face, as if it’s all I ever cared about. And it’s usually the most random things. Dragon Ball Z. Gangsta rap. NBA. Race cars. Marvel. None of these things interest me yet for WEEKS they only showed me those very specific things.

Maybe they have tuned into your hn username -- would explain the race cars and gangsta rap...

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

#238

Post by Xunxi »

Root_Denied wrote: post #158
Buttons840 wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN loves to complain about Discord (with good reason), but Discord is anti-gloss. Small Discord communities can generate a lot of discussion, a lot of user generated content. Discord is also a poor place to do stealth advertising; if you post fake messages about how good your product is, those messages will just get buried and will never show up in a search result; it's not very effective. Things changed this year. W…

My biggest problem with Discord is still more related to support communities (what would have previously been a focused forum or subreddit) moving there, and the subsequent lack of archival of topics and answers for future reference.

On android, as soon as your display timeout it will auto scroll to new messages. It is also very tedious to go and stay in the first post of threads.

Quite infuriating especially on a lengthy thread. There's a 5 year old feature request that nobody ever bothered to respond to.

https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/3600320...

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

#239

Post by paganel »

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…

There are no jokes in here, but HN definitely has a posting/comment "culture", a vibe, as the OP calls it, that's for sure.

For example I could never understood how come the rationalist thing was not derided to the moon and the back, especially after that crypto debacle with the Bahamas guy. But while there was a slight reaction shorlty after the fact that rationalist mindset has returned here in full force.

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

#240

Post by hgomersall »

brap wrote: post #215

My Facebook feed is about 40% sponsored posts, 30% suggested posts, 30% group posts (usually from very large groups), and then maybe 1% actual friends (and it’s usually just something that they’ve shared or commented on, almost never actual content). If we could go back to the days when 80% of the stuff you see is from friends with the remaining being ads, I would happily use FB more frequently and I’m sure most of m…

If we could go back to the days when there was no feed and Facebook was just a way of keeping track of your friends and sending a message, I might use it at all.
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