Agree with a lot there.
Actually, it feels like at this point there should be at least a couple social media platforms operated as utility services, not as for-profit organisations specializing in selling user data and/or providing access to users’ beliefs and worldviews to the highest bidder.
As much as people might not like it, SM services seem to only grow in relation to importance for a healthy well-functioning society, and reclassifying at least something as a public utility/human right/something in that vein is long overdue imo.
Not sure if it’s even possible though in current enterprise/governmental structures :(
Btw, that’s partly why I’m trying to participate a lot more here than I ever did on Reddit. I know fediverse probably isn’t going to be the next big thing, but if we can build some sizeable foundation here it’s at least worth trying. I’m sure as shit that large companies won’t even try.
Not sure if it’s even possible though in current enterprise/governmental structures :(
Yeah… sadly, it’s already difficult enough getting governments to even agree that internet infrastructure itself should be a public utility. Even though it has long been at the point where you absolutely need it to participate in society (depending on where you live, of course) and largely been funded by the public through taxes.
I guess the first thing all people needed to do is self-hosting (Yunohost, Nextbox, or the like), and the second thing is paying for Open Source software they use (if they can pay, as digital communication should be free very much like the commons -fresh air, drinking water- but those who can should pay imo.)
I think of money as one form of contribution. People should contribute more instead of simply asking from a place of entitlement.
I agree there are many forms of contribution (e.g., writing code if you’re a developer), it must not necessarily be money, but am not sure whether I understand what you mean.
I define success of a social network proportional to the level of fun in having there. So far Mastodon and Lemmy are the most successful for me.
Seems a bit disingenuous to compare the niche of tech folks that used Google+ to the niche that use WeChat, with the later “niche” being… China…
Not everyone has to agree that dominating a country’s social media usage is a good goal, but it clearly is the goal for many companies, and they’re going to continue to persue it. Perhaps users of social media should redefine success, but for creators of social media platforms there are absolutely clearly defined measures of success and failure.
Great article. When I came to lemmy/kbin a few weeks ago (I’m an old time now, right), I thought it will become great when most of those on Reddit realize that this is the place to be and come here in droves. That would be greatness. After reading this and thinking about it, I’m fine with the way it is now. There are lots of interesting posts like this one and interesting feedback to them. If anything having several million members in this community would make it worse.
Why was it linking to web archive instead of the source?
Nothing ever replaced Google+, which was really popular in my own tech circle.
Except Slack and LinkedIn already kind of fed that niche.
Regardless…the article is pretty much spot on. It’s fairly obvious that social networks are going to come and go; we’ve seen that over the past few decades. Every iteration of social media will revolve around the tech of the hour. I like ActivityPub and Federation because it brings additional options to the user base. It’s an exciting shift.
