The Declining Case for Social Media Giants

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Years ago I was interviewed by the RTS to speak about Twitter and my conclusion is that it would never pick up in Switzerland because there are too few users and they’re too dispersed. That is still true.

Social networks that are alive and well are Meetup, GoSocial, Strava and Whatsapp. It’s absurd that Whatsapp is in the list given that it is owned and controlled by Facebook, so people that hate Facebook would, rationally avoid Whatsapp too, but they don’t.

Meetup

Meetup is an events based social networks. This means that you look for events to join, say you’re coming, and then turn up. You can share photos after the event but if you don’t connect IRL via Whatsapp and other apps, then you’re going to experience quantum friendships. By this I mean they’re only around for the event, and vanish as soon as it’s over, until the next meetup.

GoSocial and Whatsapp

GoSocial is a paradox because it’s a chat group based social network, where chats are created for every single event, but they’re closed and conversation is throttled as soon as an event is over. It is purely to say "I’m doing this on that day", "Can you drive me from Geneva?" and maybe sharing photos after the event, but then the photos are trapped within the chat, as downloading is turned off.

Strava

Strava is two things. The first is a community of "I went for a run" and "I went for a dog walk" and "I went for a bike ride" and sports based events where people say "I’m in". There is little to no conversation, and due to there being no threading conversations are chronological. It is really not optimal for "chatting". It is great for finding local cyclists and runners.

Whatsapp

Last, but underlying every social event, is Whatsapp, or WhatsCrapp as I prefer to call it. Almost everyone is on Whatscrapp so if you want to have a social life, you are obligated to use Whatscrapp, whether it is for "ride cancelled due to rain" or "Hike taking place on this day, to that place, from here" to simply instant messaging individuals.

The Aburd

Pre-pandemic, and pre-Facebook purchase, Whatsapp was a chat client for friends of multiple events to keep the conversation going. It was a place to share thoughts, passions, challenges, and generally to keep the friendships alive between weekly indoor climbs, weekend activities and more. It was tight knit.

The Modern Coldness

The reason I call it Whatscrapp now is that conversation is actively discouraged. Utilitarianism has replaced humanism. In the past Whatsapp was a place for textroverts to have conversations in between events, and after events. In the age of WhatsCrapp you’re allowed to say "Hey, I need someone to drive me from A to B". As someone who drove people a lot I find the behaviour offensive. I’d rather have a little conversation before or after an event than "I want to use people".

Solitary Irony

Until 2007 online communities were social networks but when hashtags came to Twitter and Zynga came to Facebook the art of conversation was lost, favouring pokes, likes, retweets and more, rather than engaged and engaging conversations. We went from socially engaged and rewarding online relationships to utilitarian broadcasting. That utilitarianism is reflected by how people use WhatsCrapp but there is a silver lining. I did not write this to be negative.

Widely Accepted

In the age of Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, Instagram and more, we had to be on the tech giant sites because they had global reach. If we wanted to connect, we had to use the global site.

In 2026 everyone uses WhatsCrapp, and plenty of sporty people use Strava, and many hikers and tech people use Meetup. The GoSocial community too is large, and entirely built around Whatscrapp.

And Finally

And finally we are in a new Post Social Media age. Twitter, Facebook, Threads and Instagram were so busy getting in the way of our community building efforts that we slid to the fediverse, to Bluesky, and to social networks that are local to us, that are relevant to us, that are driven by European values.