Utilitarianism and the Death of Social Media

In 2006-2007 when Jaiku and Forums had threads, these made conversations flow. When Twitter was a chatroom conversations flowed too, until the arrival of the hashtag. The issue with the hashtag is that it brought in people who are toilet social media browsers, rather than habitual social media participants. I could have written users, but that is part of the issue with Social Media and Utilitarianism.

Two decades ago, back in 2007 or so I thought about the conversation about ROI for PR firms, brands and more on Twitter and every time I asked, “But what about ROI for human beings, normal users?” Twitter and company spent so much time worrying about marketers and those that want to use, rather than appreciate social media that, in the end, all social networks became cesspits, rather than social networks.

Before Zynga, we chatted between friends at uni, and we planned events, and when an event was over we shared photographs. With twitter we had conversations with each other for hours per day, and then we met up at Tuttle events, Tweetups, Bar Camps and more. Twitter was where we met people, and then we brought our acquaintances into the physical world. Twitter was our way of extending our social network beyond physical limits.

With Instagram, for years, it was a place to share photos with our Twitter friends, and people we knew in person. We would share, like and comment on their photos, and they would return that mutual interest.

When Instagram was bought by Facebook, and ruined, it shifted from being a chronological timeline of our friends, family, and colleagues to posts by complete strangers, and binfluencers, rather than our friends. We went from having a dozen likes from friends, to zero. We went from seeing what our friends were up to, to seeing what complete strangers were up to. Influencers were flooding our timelines.

Binfluencers, as I call them generate noise. They post, and they flood our timelines, but they rarely engage with us. We see their posts, we comment, and we are ignored. They shouldn’t be in our timelines.

On Twitter, Threads, and Instagram, when I can I block utilitarian antisocial media users. I block verified accounts and more.

Doomscrolling and Algorithms

When Social Media was a network of friends, and their networks, our timeline sped up as we followed more people. Our social network grew and sped up according to who we followed, as well as through who was chatting with whom. In this manner our social network was a social network of social networks, and the more time we invested, the stronger our social network became.

With Algorithms, and utilitarianism, we went from conversations within conversations between friends, and friends of friends, to noise. We went from keeping up with our social network to being isolated by algorithms, and scrolling, in the hope of finding a conversation, and finding none. The result is that people with their own families left, people who were busy with work left.

During the pandemic social media stopped being a social network.

Online Communities and the Coming of Age

It’s easy for me to say “I miss Twitter and the Social Media golden age, but the truth is that what we have today is far better. Via Strava I can meet up with cyclists in the physical world, every single week and they’re local. They are meeting just three kilometres from where I live.

With Meetup.com I can meet people interested in tech, hiking, via ferrata and more.

With GoSocial I can meet people to go to bars, restaurants, hikes, ice skating and bike rides and more.

And Finally

When I was interviewed by Nouvo in 2008 or so I was asked whether I thought Twitter would thrive and I said “no, because the community is too small.” Today, and over the last day or two I began to think “My ideal has become a reality”. By this I mean that Strava, Meetup.com and GoSocial, among other social networks, enable me to meet up with people and be social, in person, every single day of the year, if I want to be.

In essence Twitter, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram were good when the web was a frontier. The Web is ubiquitous now, and Social Media is no longer relevant. Our social networks are in the physical realm, once again.

Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook have become irrelevant, because they have undermined the very communities that made them sticky to begin with.

I look forward to reverting to being part of social networks, rather than social media.