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Slow social media

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Re: Slow social media

#61

Post by simianparrot »

bonoboTP wrote: post #53
simianparrot wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing. I see them when I see them. If there’s something urgent we call each other or send an SMS. There’s no need for daily, weekly or even monthly updates. This makes meeting and talking in person always interesting because there’s so much to sync that we’ve all had time to digest beforehand. In the beginning when I left Facebook over ten years ago it felt alienating. Then it felt too quiet. Then whenever I met pe…

I think culture is more private again. In the early social media phase, people very nonchalantly posted all their random thoughts and drinking pics, vagueposting publicly about a breakup etc. People now feel more surveilled, and feel that the public internet is icky. HR sees all etc. It's similar to how people changed their behaviors in response to ubiquitous phone cameras. It feels paradoxical to say that, but I thi…

I think that's definitely a part of it. I also think the signal to noise ratio has simply gotten so low that it's started taking up too much energy for most people, so the value is lost. There will always be "feed junkies", I suspect, but they're a dwindling minority.

Re: Slow social media

#62

Post by klondike_klive »

kovezd wrote: post #30
bkettle wrote: post #12

I think modern social media is a huge problem but don’t see we can fix it without regulation. It’s clear that all the current incentives point companies towards engagement and rage bait and away from anything actually “social”, and I think it’s unlikely that any new social network that tries to fix these issues would achieve widespread usage. Have any countries proposed legislation to help reign it in? What would tha…

Yes. We should only allow social media in a printed format.

I'd go further and stipulate spoken word only. Or shouted in town squares by someone wearing a tricorn hat.

Re: Slow social media

#63

Post by wink »

bonoboTP wrote: post #50
pflenker wrote: post #40

I don’t want to be limited to „meaningful connections!“ I stay in close contact with those who are dear to me outside of social media. I want to stay connected to some random coworker I enjoyed working with in 2011, because I enjoy watching them from a distance, getting married, settling down, that kind of stuff, and occasionally comment on these things. This used to be a strength of social media before algorithms ca…

I wonder if that voyeuristic use case is good for people/society. People used to naturally fade from each other's lives, maybe you saw each other in the street if you stayed in the same area, you could ask them about their life in person. If you were closer friends, they'd show you the photos of their wedding or vacation when you visited for dinner or hung out. Even in the early version, these life updates became a c…

Is it voyeuristic to read and observe what people are broadcasting, either publicly or to a closed circle?

I dunno, if I don't want anyone to see the post I will not post it or limit its visibility, I am very much in the same camp as the person you're replying to.

People who I lost regular contact with but am totally happy to meet again once a year or every couple years. (Does not mean more often would be bad, just being realistic). Which we actually do, from time to time.

We also have a Slack with old colleagues form one company, but it's mostly a way to contact them or for the occasional tech question and chitchat, so it's even more closed off - but no different than broadcasting events, really.

But I'm also not arguing that it's strictly needed.

Re: Slow social media

#64

Post by bonoboTP »

wink wrote: post #63
bonoboTP wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if that voyeuristic use case is good for people/society. People used to naturally fade from each other's lives, maybe you saw each other in the street if you stayed in the same area, you could ask them about their life in person. If you were closer friends, they'd show you the photos of their wedding or vacation when you visited for dinner or hung out. Even in the early version, these life updates became a c…

Is it voyeuristic to read and observe what people are broadcasting, either publicly or to a closed circle? I dunno, if I don't want anyone to see the post I will not post it or limit its visibility, I am very much in the same camp as the person you're replying to. People who I lost regular contact with but am totally happy to meet again once a year or every couple years. (Does not mean more often would be bad, just b…

Maybe that's not the right word, it's too pejorative. What I mean is looking at someone's private life without them narrating it to you specifically and being aware in real time that you're looking at it. I'm not claiming anything negative about its ethics or similar. That's not my point at all. I'm just asking whether it is conducive to real social connection and whether it really produces and maintains the kind of ties that it supposedly maintains or if it's an illusion. Sure, it's nice to reconnect with a long lost classmate or "interesting" to see the baby pics of that one college friend you last talked to in 2012. But to what end exactly? If it actually leads to regular IRL hangouts that's great. Otherwise it's just some kind of nostalgia trap.

> if I don't want anyone to see the post I will not post it or limit its visibility

Yes, and nowadays people tend to share less. Exactly because in the 2000s these instincts were less sharp and then people realized that a wider circle of people is looking than they thought and things remain online for long.

Re: Slow social media

#65

Post by Ekaros »

klondike_klive wrote: post #62
kovezd wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. We should only allow social media in a printed format.

I'd go further and stipulate spoken word only. Or shouted in town squares by someone wearing a tricorn hat.

I am more partial to various jester caps. Good range of options.

Re: Slow social media

#66

Post by pmontra »

WhatsApp and Telegram are my slow social media. They ring only for the very few people I really care about. Everything else accumulates in their chats.

I get some link to FB and TikTok in my chats and groups but I don't open all of them. I don't have the apps, so if I do I open them in the browser. I'm not logged in. No TikTok account. Links to Instagram are very rare. No account. I check WhatsApp and Telegram when I feel like, no pressure.

Re: Slow social media

#67

Post by baubino »

The article is basically describing Friendster, which was the first big social media platform after MySpace. I have zero social media accounts (for all the reasons described) but wouldn’t mind a Friendster-like platform.

Re: Slow social media

#68

Post by baubino »

pflenker wrote: post #40

I don’t want to be limited to „meaningful connections!“ I stay in close contact with those who are dear to me outside of social media. I want to stay connected to some random coworker I enjoyed working with in 2011, because I enjoy watching them from a distance, getting married, settling down, that kind of stuff, and occasionally comment on these things. This used to be a strength of social media before algorithms ca…

This desire to follow people’s lives from a distance without necessarily interacting with them in the world is the root of the very unhealthy parasocial tendencies driving social media. It seems quite innocent and benign on the scale of one person just wanting to keep up with the life of a cool coworker from the past, but it quickly adds up to a bunch of people passively following other people with very little actual interaction. It is more akin to reading a novel or watching a movie except that social following tricks our brain into thinking we really are keeping up a relationship with the people that we’re voyeuristically watching.

Re: Slow social media

#69

Post by baubino »

supriyo-biswas wrote: post #60
bonoboTP wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if that voyeuristic use case is good for people/society. People used to naturally fade from each other's lives, maybe you saw each other in the street if you stayed in the same area, you could ask them about their life in person. If you were closer friends, they'd show you the photos of their wedding or vacation when you visited for dinner or hung out. Even in the early version, these life updates became a c…

I disagree that being interested in the life updates of someone as being equivalent to a voyeur. There are people who fade out of one’s lives for various reasons, but it doesn’t mean that the relationship has to end at that. There are many schoolmates, coworkers, etc. who I wish l I had some idea where they were now, which I don’t have right now because of my general avoidance of social media. This is just a way of k…

Reading someone’s life updates and watching their videos is not keeping up a connection though. It’s a parasocial relationship that makes us feel like there is a connection whereas an actual connection would require interaction between people. As you rightly noted, one of the main outcomes of the parasocial relationship is that it replaces real life interactions - you no longer have to ask people questions about their lives or figure out how to make conversation when you do see them; you can just reference their social media posts.

Re: Slow social media

#70

Post by haijo2 »

asukachikaru wrote: post #55
tayo42 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think banning algorithm based feeds is a start Getting rid of any non personal accounts also. So no companies, brands, or meme accounts, and accounts that exist for non personal content only.

Never thought about it but banning non personal accounts sounds like a good start. I doubt such social media would gain any meaningful popularity though.

Lol it would be dead. IG is running off of the fact that people utilise its platform to make money... I dont see how this is going to be practical.
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