(apologies for the ridiculous length of this, and totally understand if you pass up reading the comment, it's also a bit incoherent/lazy/quickly put together) ---- To me, the real problems are the following. All related to "social media" but not social media in itself. 1) The Stream (timeline, whatever you want to call it). Instead of static single "pages" that linked to each other as separate entities with their own…
That's a great list and write-up. Thank you for doing this.
Thanks/YW :) It's something that's been on my mind the past 5-10 years watching things unfold.
(apologies for the ridiculous length of this, and totally understand if you pass up reading the comment, it's also a bit incoherent/lazy/quickly put together) ---- To me, the real problems are the following. All related to "social media" but not social media in itself. 1) The Stream (timeline, whatever you want to call it). Instead of static single "pages" that linked to each other as separate entities with their own…
I agree with all of this, but would add: The "social media" we see isn't the entire landscape. There are lots of small communities hanging out in spaces like unpopular subreddits, random internet forums, discord servers. It's just the 10GW burning sun that is popular social media can feel like it drowns that all out. And, I think there's a bit of a nagging feeling of irrelevance that can creep in when you're in these…
Good point. The early exploration did make it a lot smaller. I think moving to where people end up adding IRL friends instead of "random strangers with similar interests" (I still think Livejournal had the best way of finding online people and building those relationships as people and not just meme-sharers/reacters to dopamine). I use another age-old online community that's been around since before 2000, and with good moderation and community support, while it's been up and down, generally "keeps the faith" with the users. And that's a pretty good timeline I think 95-2005.
(apologies for the ridiculous length of this, and totally understand if you pass up reading the comment, it's also a bit incoherent/lazy/quickly put together) ---- To me, the real problems are the following. All related to "social media" but not social media in itself. 1) The Stream (timeline, whatever you want to call it). Instead of static single "pages" that linked to each other as separate entities with their own…
Wow! This really captures several key facets of what's going on. Thank you for making time to write all of that. P.S. Your JPB quote from 1992 reminded me of Stuart Brand in 1985: > "Computers suppress our animal presence. When you communicate through a computer, you communicate like an angel."
Thanks/YW. Yeah, a lot of those old 90s libertarian/community building/better world idealism hit me right when I was coming of age. I'm a pessimist now, but those early days were inspirational in what could be.
For me it started with a 1200 baud modem connected to my Apple IIe.
For me it started with signing up for Match.com for free in 1995 because I was one of the first 10,000 users. Seriously, it was probably Usenet that kept me engaged. The web was exciting to browse but the conversation was on Usenet.
I was early to Match as well. When I first started, there were a total of 8 women in the entire Bay Area. I kept that free account for years and eventually found my (now ex-)wife through the site.
Since this election has unfolded I've been thinking a lot about narratives and what they mean. Progress is largely based on narratives. They're the stories we tell ourselves to stay focused, motivated, and aligned. The narrative doesn't have to be true, it just needs to be a convincing story grounded in some reality (as it would seem). That got me thinking about the function of narratives versus truths, how they're r…
Yea, I was just thinking that. Truth is a narrative too. There's one difference though: over time, truth will play out. Simple example: blood moon occurs, people think they'll die. And then the next morning comes around. With social systems, the truth takes a lot of time to truly unfold, but unfold it does.
Yeah, very much agree. My point moreso was that the truth also needs a good narrative. I think we missed that this last election cycle. Isolated facts are not enough to convince people of a story, even if it will clearly play out as true.
Yea, I was just thinking that. Truth is a narrative too. There's one difference though: over time, truth will play out. Simple example: blood moon occurs, people think they'll die. And then the next morning comes around. With social systems, the truth takes a lot of time to truly unfold, but unfold it does.
Yeah, very much agree. My point moreso was that the truth also needs a good narrative. I think we missed that this last election cycle. Isolated facts are not enough to convince people of a story, even if it will clearly play out as true.