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I really miss the age of social networks. In the age of social networks our sphere of influence was limited to our friends, and our friends of friends. The result is that social media was a friendly conversation rather than a popularity contest.
Over the last two days I have been looking at Threads and BlueSky and to a lesser extent Facebook and I am struck by how many thousands of posts and likes threads and posts get. In such an ecosystem we are in a popularity contest where some people get more attention than they can handle and deserve, whilst most normal people are ignored and solitary.
Adam Mosseri wrote
“We are rebalancing ranking to prioritise content from people you follow, which will mean less recommended content from accounts you don’t follow and more posts from the accounts you do starting today. For you creators out there, you should see unconnected reach go down and connected reach go up. This is definitely a work in progress – balancing the ability to reach followers and overall engagement is tricky – thanks for your patience and keep the feedback coming.”
In the golden age of social media, at the end of social networks the algorithm was conversation. The more we engaged with others, the more we were visible, The more people engaged with us, the more visible we were. It was an environment where those that invested their time and attention in others was rewarded by increased visibility but also closer friendships and deeper bonds.
They are trying to reinvent something that is simple. Communities are built around relationships and familiarity. The more algorithms break those bonds, the more likely trolling is, and with that, disengagement.
And Finally
What really gets to me is that social media is no longer social, Influencers are throwing stuff out and desperate to be seen and get hundreds or thousands of likes and comments, but as soon as I see that a post has a hundred likes and 20 comments I ignore it.
Social networks used to be about conversations, but I barely see any conversations. I see monologues. The more I scroll, withoutt engagement, or a sense of community, the more I feel that “social media” is a waste of time. Finding a community takes time. I think that era has passed.
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