Maybe stop using social media.

[Aqua Letifer]

In the past decade or so, I've had to get acquainted with social media platforms for work. Right now, for example, I occasionally work on things for an Instagram account that has roughly 200,000 followers.

I'm telling you, this shit is bad for you. And these platforms are not what they used to be.

1. The business model hasn't changed: these platforms need you to stay online so that they can serve you ads, and extract information about you to support the ad-buyers. That's likely not going to change.
2. At the start, how Facebook and Instagram got you onto their platform was through your friends. It was a way for you to stay connected to people you already knew. That was the draw, that's how it could serve you ads.
3. Well, it turns out that our friends' breakfast photos were far less interesting to us than posts by The Rock. So platforms started recommending larger accounts for us to follow instead of our personal connections to keep us engaged.
4. Not too long after, these larger accounts were weighted more in our social media feed than that of our friends. This is what people mean when they mention "the algorithm": a curated feed based on our past engagement, not the time of posting. It pissed a lot of people off, because they actually wanted to see what Grandma was doing on Facebook, not another Pinterest stop-motion on how to make cake pops.

But that's not where we even are anymore. Say goodbye to grandma entirely. And The Rock, too, for that matter.

5. TikTok changed everything. They figured out how to get us addicted to content without us having to follow anyone. You can, right now, download TikTok, create a profile in seconds, and immediately receive an endless stream of content. The platform will then heavily analyze how you interact with that content, figuring out what you engage with the most, so that it can feed you more of that shit and less of the things that don't elicit a reaction.

This is enormous. TikTok isn't serving you content from your friends, or large accounts necessarily; that's not how it decides what to show you. TikTok doesn't need you to have connections with anyone at all. All it needs is to learn what gets you addicted. And sadly, addictive posts aren't the ones that make you feel inspired, teach you anything, or keep you in touch with anyone. Clickbait nonsense and outrage porn is the way to go, so it's really unhealthy for you.

But how's this strategy working out for them?

Instagram has started to follow suit. Start up a brand new account, don't follow anyone, and check its feed if you don't believe me. Facebook has followed suit, too, and Twitter's catching on. Because of course they are, they'll get left behind if they don't.

It's pretty dark stuff.

[kluurs]

Yup, I was an early user of TIkTok - and the change has been swift and incredible. For a while, it was 1 or 2 interesting things followed by teenage girls prancing around or boys doing something stupid, followed by videos of something like the George Floyd riots - but now, It is very curated to my interests. It is the fentanyl of social media. I get doses of history, hack ideas, suggestions for how to better use MS Office, interesting websites, piano themed videos, a guy sharing info on the oil industry, cookng tips - etc.

[Aqua Letifer]

@kluurs said in Maybe stop using social media.:

It is the fentanyl of social media.

It really is.

The ultimate insult, of course, is how they promote these platforms to the folks who like making short videos and the like. "A place for you to share your content with the world."

First of all, they should be kneecapped for calling it content.

Secondly, absolutely right. If you keep your videos simple, visually saturated, and trick your audience into watching until the end of the clip/reel/whatever in any way that you possibly can, no matter how you do it, then yes, you can call yourself a content creator and get yourself some exposure because your "content" is good for the ad buys. Grats.

[bachophile]

interesting that twitter is the lowest one on the chart...maybe because its not an instant gratification platform, but requires reading and actively following...

be that as it may, and elon musk notwithstanding, ive found that twitter has evolved into a complete cesspit of evil and anger, people tweeting out things that are just abhorrent.

dont know how much more i can take following political stuff, i think ill drop my following to landscape photography people, aviation and maritime tweeters, and smattering of medical stuff (to me the least interesting because im up to date in my field without needing twitter). ok also the flat earthers, i cant stop following them.

[89th]

Interesting analysis and good summary Aqua. Depressing, indeed. I haven't opened TikTok yet (on purpose, I'm stubborn sometimes... like with twitter) but also I guess because early on there was the Chinese ownership risks I didn't like. Although I have to say, most videos on reddit seem to be "hosted" on TikTok (that logo at the end).

I'd imagine TikTok is similar-ish to the Instagram video/story infinity feed? Probably one of my biggest pet peeves is watching my wife get pulled into that world of scrolling while our kids are around. "Just one more scroll, one more video..." and 30 min later and it's now dark outside.

[jon-nyc]

I manage to keep my Twitter feed relatively civil and interesting. I have Econ, science, archeology, classical music, rare disease/FDA stuff, and a small handful of relatively sane political commentators.

[Axtremus]

Great commentary, @Aqua-Letifer!
Consider also posting it on social media so it can be more easily and widely shared with more people!

[Aqua Letifer]

@jon-nyc said in Maybe stop using social media.:

I manage to keep my Twitter feed relatively civil and interesting. I have Econ, science, archeology, classical music, rare disease/FDA stuff, and a small handful of relatively sane political commentators.

Me too, but here's the thing: the algo's gonna learn what you do. If you inherently slow down to read a greater percentage of, say, dead hooker jokes than you do financial stuff, you're going to stop seeing the latter in your feed regardless of who you follow. I guarantee you that's where we're heading.

[Aqua Letifer]

@bachophile said in Maybe stop using social media.:

dont know how much more i can take following political stuff, i think ill drop my following to landscape photography people, aviation and maritime tweeters, and smattering of medical stuff (to me the least interesting because im up to date in my field without needing twitter).

That's what I'm saying, though. Insta no longer gives a damn who you follow. You're fed content based on what you continue to interact with, not who. You're no longer in control of your feed.

As for Insta having more to read in the captions, that's so dead. They don't want you posting anymore, they want you making reels. And they give you a dopamine hit in the form of much higher engagement from reels to get you to make them. Posts get buried.

[Aqua Letifer]

@89th said in Maybe stop using social media.:

Interesting analysis and good summary Aqua. Depressing, indeed. I haven't opened TikTok yet (on purpose, I'm stubborn sometimes... like with twitter) but also I guess because early on there was the Chinese ownership risks I didn't like. Although I have to say, most videos on reddit seem to be "hosted" on TikTok (that logo at the end).

I'd imagine TikTok is similar-ish to the Instagram video/story infinity feed? Probably one of my biggest pet peeves is watching my wife get pulled into that world of scrolling while our kids are around. "Just one more scroll, one more video..." and 30 min later and it's now dark outside.

Not her fault—it's literally designed to do that to people. And yeah, TikTok is similar although they did it first; Insta is working hard to catch up, along with everyone else.

[Jolly]

Social media?

Never started.

[Catseye3]

That "this shit is bad for you" is evident, and according to what you say -- very valuable! -- it's getting worse.

So what if you just walked away from all of it? What would be the effect? A healthy diminution of clutter, but given how tentacled it's become, might doing without have a shrinking effect on your experience of living, of being alive?

I have thought often that it's not so good to have the universe (and beyond) at your fingertips right in your own home. Once the golly-gee aspect has worn off, it's "Well, don't have to wonder about that anymore, I've seen it on the Internet"; next thing you know your curiosity bump is entirely deflated. Say you want to see a quaking aspen. Time was you had to travel to see it. Now it's, like magic there it is. No need to see the real thing. YouTube is almost as good!

But! What effect would reversing this have on the human mind, the human imagination? Say social media disappeared, and now you have to travel to Colorado if you want to see a quaking aspen. How inclined will you be to go through all the stuff to do that, once you're off the farm and have seen Paree? Wouldn't it be like being forced to walk everywhere because all the cars disappeared? Then you wouldn't have it in real life or in Internet life. You'd have nothing.

And don't get me started on the effect of all this as it now exists on small children, whose brains are still learning how reality works!

[Aqua Letifer]

@Jolly said in Maybe stop using social media.:

Social media?

Never started.

Nice flex.

[Aqua Letifer]

@Catseye3 said in Maybe stop using social media.:
|<<

So what if you just walked away from all of it?

It wouldn't keep people from traveling. Ask jon, Klaus or bach. But to really answer your question, you have to understand the various user types. And there can be a lot of overlap here, but this is my understanding of, say, Insta users. On the platform, you have:

Personal users. These folks still use the platform like they did 8 years ago. They don't try to gain a following, they just interact with people they know and like. I don't think these people yet understand that their online connections will dissolve on these platforms. Were they to walk away, no big deal I guess. Discord and WhatsApp kind of provide what they're looking for.

Amateur content creators. These people have it rough. They don’t really see reality in terms of what it is anymore. They can’t just take a day trip to the shore and hang out at some wine bar, they also have to view that experience as potential fodder for the online engagement they're addicted to. (A lot of them sadly are still chasing followers, which mean nothing anymore.) If their “look up” reel at the wine bar tanks, they get depressed, despite having a good time there. (A LOT of kids are in this category, by the way.) Were these people to walk away, it’d be the best thing for them.

Actual influencers. I feel sorry for these poor bastards. They’re already relics, because as I mentioned, followers no longer mean anything. But in order to stay relevant, they’re going to have to do crazier and crazier shit to get your eyeballs on them. Some will be able to and thrive, but it’s going to be harder. A lot of them have a decent financial stake in keeping the train on the tracks, though, so it’s going to be much harder for them to leave a particular platform. Their engagement numbers mean money to them.

Small businesses. Now we get into the difference between organic and paid social. If these businesses are trying to play the organic game, I honestly don’t know why they bother anymore. Very and I mean very specific kinds of content yield organic returns on these platforms now, and these companies aren’t producing it, by and large. But in terms of paid social, ads on some platforms like Twitter and Instagram are still undervalued, and Facebook’s targeting is second to none, so it might be worth it to stick around. Were they to walk away, they’d miss out on localized adverts, but they aren’t addicted to these platforms, so they might as well stick around.

Big businesses. They’ll thrive, because they have the money to make paid social work for them. They won’t bounce, nor should they.

[Jolly]

@Aqua-Letifer said in Maybe stop using social media.:

@Jolly said in Maybe stop using social media.:

Social media?

Never started.

Nice flex.

If you got it, flaunt it.

[Aqua Letifer]

@Jolly said in Maybe stop using social media.:

@Aqua-Letifer said in Maybe stop using social media.:

@Jolly said in Maybe stop using social media.:

Social media?

Never started.

Nice flex.

If you got it, flaunt it.

I don't think it really profits anyone to not understand something. This is how you get craziness like "Twitter is a liberal Nazi platform because that's all I ever see mentioned on Fox."

And you're engaging with YouTube, so you can't claim you're fully removed from it. The vast majority of YT users don't upload, either.

[Jolly]

To amateur content creators...What about the person who has been so successful, they are now considered among the experts in their field?

[Aqua Letifer]

@Jolly said in Maybe stop using social media.:

To amateur content creators...What about the person who has been so successful, they are now considered among the experts in their field?

Well right now, we're transitioning from the old model—followers/followings, people actually deciding what they see and interact with, along with suggestions peppered in—to the new model of all algo serving, all the time.

I don't know to what extent this will happen, but basically, they better start getting entertaining if they want to keep eyes on them.

I don't know if these platforms will ever get rid of followers & followings, but don't believe for a second that just because you follow someone, you'll see what they're going to post next. Following people means nothing anymore and hasn't for the past year.

[xenon]

@89th said in Maybe stop using social media.:

Probably one of my biggest pet peeves is watching my wife get pulled into that world of scrolling while our kids are around.

Same! My wife and I talk about this all the time. She's into insta. She completely agrees with the sentiment that it's a time stealer - but it remains a powerful pull.

[Horace]

My 15 second youtube video where I started an air fryer got 1300 views within several hours of putting it up. And yet my creative genius is still denied by some. Sad.