The good ol' days of writing on your friends' walls and doing status updates is over. With the "enshittification" of social media, users are turning to DM's to post amongst their trusted community.
Fascinating and well researched. Where does WhatsApp belong in this landscape? I'm confident having fun with friends on there. And...what about Substack itself?
Great questions on WhatsApp and Substack, Allan! When I started writing this piece, I realized it would be an overload to fit everything in one post, so I broke it out into two - this one is focused on changes in user preferences and attitutdes on social media.. And the next is on how Social Media companies are adapting as well as nicher platforms such as Substack. So there will be some more detail there.
WhatsApp is kind of playing into Zuckerberg's strengths at the moment with the rise in Direct Messaging and Group Chats. In fact, a lot of these trends have become more pronounced in emerging economies such as India, Brazil etc.. WhatsApp continues to see explosive growth there.
Substack, on the other hand, is an interesting one. Anecdotal research and my initial impressions from Year 1 of substack turning into a social platform is that the relative absence of bots and content moderation is making Substack popular - Again.. eyeballing site numbers I see that half of Substack's user growth comes from outside the U.S. so that's helping Substack just like WhatsApp. I might breakout my analysis for Substack into a part 3 depending on what I can find.
Interesting trends and not surprising. Perhaps you are planning to cover this in Part 2...would love to learn more about the AI algorithms that the social media platforms are using, how those are evolving and the monetary angles behind these algorithms. After all following the money will help us better understand where these business models are heading. Thanks
Great question, Beachman! I wont be talking much about the algos as much. I think there's great detail about the efficiency and model performance that AI brings which can be found in abundance online.
But we do see a few shifts in certain aspects of the model in terms of the network. Early days but we think decentralization plays some part long-term and will be explaining how.
FWIW my dad used to think LOL meant lots of love and would use it in odd contexts. IDK IIRC there’s always something we don’t know. At least you admit it.
He was a great guy, but way lost on current culture and technology. I shudder to think what incorrect acronyms he used at work. I can safely assume LOL was not among them.
Fascinating research and thoughts on social media! Have you tried out Airchat, yet? It’s the most personal social network I’ve experienced lately. P.S. thank you for the kind promo of our Maven course!
I understand why people don't want to post about their lives anymore. The second Meta informed people they didn't own their pictures and information anymore, people didn't want to post as much.
I don't want to share my life if the company can sell it to other companies.
Yes sir. Thats where the consensus is moving towards. But a question for you - what was your moment of awakening? Was it the Cambridge Analytica scandal or the elections later or Covid that made you possible do a double take about sharing your life online?
For example, there was a big startup I was interviewing for in 2016 and during the background checks they asked me to add my facebook id. That's one of the key moments when this realization hit me.
It was way back when Facebook started changing the timelines. I think it was 2007, when they made mention that the things you posted could be used to sell to other sites.
To me the term "forked paths" carries literary and historical connotations, as it echoes the title of Jorge Luis Borges' short story "The Garden of Forking Paths." This connection adds depth and richness to the metaphor, making it more evocative imo; His literary device serves as a metaphor for the multiplicity of human experience and the complexity of decision-making. By extending this idea to the future of work, I think the garden of forking paths becomes a powerful allegory for the uncertainty, interconnectedness, and potential for transformation that characterize our present and future of work and humanity
I remember coming across this adaption of Spiderman's quote when catching up on all the backlash Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) got about his reviews on Humane's AI pin. Basically, word on the street is that MKBHD's critical reviews have doomed Humane's product and some folks deemed MKBHD's reviews too harsh and said:-
"With great reach comes great responsibility." So yes - the power for many social media companies is immense.
Great post. You know I can't resist a tech behavior question. :-D There is a natural progression from shiny penny, "new" or "fun" to "what's it good for? " where the novelty has worn off. There was a time (ever so briefly) when knowing what someone else had for breakfast was interesting by virtual of its newness.
Now, consciously or unconsciously, people are doing a cost/benefit analysis (both psychological and economic) of how any device in its current permutation of attributes and constraints is supporting their goals. Increased awareness of privacy and information overload add pressures to curate content, which often results in narrowing information breadth and creating those dreaded filter bubbles. The human brain has limited capacity, even if our phones don't. A lag in behavioral change comes from habituated behaviors for which people like to blame the social media companies, but in fact, the 'off' button is on our own phone. You can tell I'm warming up to the importance of digital literacy b/c understanding how our brains respond to stimulus helps us examine our behaviors without guilt and cultivate mindful, intentional media use.
Intentional behaviors often require behavior change which, of course, require two things that are hard: self-awareness and goal-setting. Obviously, conscious evaluation of goals is more effective. But for some people, choices are unconscious reactions, such as t hose made by the aggravation of hearing someone you don't agree with. For tweens and teens, goals are easy since their brains are hardwired to "social" goals, which is why parents are important to keep other goals, like school, on the cognitive horizon. But Snap allowed people to be silly or funny without the onus of permanence that comes with most digital communication and with the illusion of intimacy by virtue of narrow friend lists. In that sense, Snap more resembled conversational banter that, however banal, is fun which is a positive emotion (duh) but shared emotions have the effect of reinforcing the strengthening relationships. Social connections are one of the primary drivers of human behavior at all ages (esp. teens) and central to well-being. So another route to anticipating the behaviors in your final point is to start with core needs and asking what behaviors support the fundamental human goal of using and maintaining connections using (or adapting) the current tools.
Thanks Pam for such a thoughtful comment and loved this particular sentence of yours: "Intentional behaviors often require behavior change which, of course, require two things that are hard: self-awareness and goal-setting."
I agree with you that as the hype fades away from "posting what you had for breakfast" to a more thoughtful cost/benefit analysis of one's long term goals, I feel that people are increasingly gravitating towards "authenticity", instead of consuming media just for the sake of it. And aligned to your point on digital literacy and social connections, I believe the next phase of social media will be community driven based on people's values and goals, where they create an trusted and secure environment for people to share and learn from each other. It will be interesting to watch how social media companies build around this aspect of human behavior, instead of its current model, where it has become more "media" than "social". I know there is a lot of chatter in the decentralized communities to build such private networks using tokens to align member incentives and actions. Although I am not completely fluent with those ideas whether it has long-term viability, this is definitely something that both Uttam and I are reading about passionately to craft our POV in the next post.
"At the same time, social media is increasingly replacing the TV or local news channel, with social media users expected to outgrow the number of TV viewers in the U.S. by 2025."
Not that the information that we get from any Network source has been completely vetted, but the idea that this is where people will receive the majority of their news/information is a bit frightening. I know we are already seeing this, but we do have some other outlets to balance out the noise a bit currently.
I'm wondering how anyone is going to be able to judge the authenticity of the information they are consuming?
Good question, Tobin. The authenticity of content put up has become even more relevant nowadays. If you go back to the study by MorningConsult, I remember recalling some responses by survey participants where they mentioned that they now refrain from posting on social media because they feel their lives may be banal compared to the posts of many others (influencers?). The point Im trying to make here is creators have some influence over some people and kept them from posting about their own lives.
However, there are many that have started questioning the authenticity of many posts from creators. Many of those questions have even spilled over to news that is shared online where users question the authenticity of someone's tweet or the information in the tweet/post.
One of the ways FB/Twitter etc attempted to verify authenticity was to hire content moderators but over time that seemed sub-optimal. We'll be talking about this in the next section where many companies have moved away from content moderation towards other means such as crowd-sourcing
Uttam/Amrita — great work, as always! It’s fascinating to see how social media has changed our view of what “content” means. I wonder, too, – though social media is still relatively young – how consumption of that media will change as *we* age.
For me that would probably depend on what's on the table to eat😬😬😬.. or what's the household news channel😬. Jokes aside, i think in general its become difficult with the vast amount of information available (and social media was part of that, helping the distribution).. I find myself telling my parents over half the time that the video looks doctored or the source of your news looks unverifiable and nowadays more arguments tend to be the source of the news rather than the news itself, i think. Do you see something similar?
Fascinating and well researched. Where does WhatsApp belong in this landscape? I'm confident having fun with friends on there. And...what about Substack itself?
Great questions on WhatsApp and Substack, Allan! When I started writing this piece, I realized it would be an overload to fit everything in one post, so I broke it out into two - this one is focused on changes in user preferences and attitutdes on social media.. And the next is on how Social Media companies are adapting as well as nicher platforms such as Substack. So there will be some more detail there.
WhatsApp is kind of playing into Zuckerberg's strengths at the moment with the rise in Direct Messaging and Group Chats. In fact, a lot of these trends have become more pronounced in emerging economies such as India, Brazil etc.. WhatsApp continues to see explosive growth there.
Substack, on the other hand, is an interesting one. Anecdotal research and my initial impressions from Year 1 of substack turning into a social platform is that the relative absence of bots and content moderation is making Substack popular - Again.. eyeballing site numbers I see that half of Substack's user growth comes from outside the U.S. so that's helping Substack just like WhatsApp. I might breakout my analysis for Substack into a part 3 depending on what I can find.
Hope I answered your question.
Interesting trends and not surprising. Perhaps you are planning to cover this in Part 2...would love to learn more about the AI algorithms that the social media platforms are using, how those are evolving and the monetary angles behind these algorithms. After all following the money will help us better understand where these business models are heading. Thanks
Great question, Beachman! I wont be talking much about the algos as much. I think there's great detail about the efficiency and model performance that AI brings which can be found in abundance online.
But we do see a few shifts in certain aspects of the model in terms of the network. Early days but we think decentralization plays some part long-term and will be explaining how.
I’m still on team silly banter FWIW, but I doubt anyone cares what I had for breakfast (2 cups of coffee, a protein drink, and a cookie)
Lol.. me too. btw.. I didnt know what FWIW was. But you made me learn something new.🧐
FWIW my dad used to think LOL meant lots of love and would use it in odd contexts. IDK IIRC there’s always something we don’t know. At least you admit it.
FWIW and IIRC, didn't know what they meant until now. Your dad's LOL story is hilarious and so heart warming at the same time.
He was a great guy, but way lost on current culture and technology. I shudder to think what incorrect acronyms he used at work. I can safely assume LOL was not among them.
Oh boy! cracked me up! made my morning!!!!👻👻👻
Fascinating research and thoughts on social media! Have you tried out Airchat, yet? It’s the most personal social network I’ve experienced lately. P.S. thank you for the kind promo of our Maven course!
Thanks Kes, and you are very welcome.
As for Airchat, I saw a couple of Scott's Linkedin posts, but yet to try it. Probably should play with it a bit before we write our Part 2.
Thanks Kes. I didnt know about Airchat but I Scott's sent me an invite so Im going to explore that
Fascinating! Keep it coming y’all pls! And thanks for the link to the future of work course (signed up !)
I understand why people don't want to post about their lives anymore. The second Meta informed people they didn't own their pictures and information anymore, people didn't want to post as much.
I don't want to share my life if the company can sell it to other companies.
Yes sir. Thats where the consensus is moving towards. But a question for you - what was your moment of awakening? Was it the Cambridge Analytica scandal or the elections later or Covid that made you possible do a double take about sharing your life online?
For example, there was a big startup I was interviewing for in 2016 and during the background checks they asked me to add my facebook id. That's one of the key moments when this realization hit me.
It was way back when Facebook started changing the timelines. I think it was 2007, when they made mention that the things you posted could be used to sell to other sites.
‘Enshittification’ is now my word of the day. Will attempt to work it into conversations this afternoon
I love it!!! Perhaps, you will work it in one of your future posts.
My word of the day too!
To me the term "forked paths" carries literary and historical connotations, as it echoes the title of Jorge Luis Borges' short story "The Garden of Forking Paths." This connection adds depth and richness to the metaphor, making it more evocative imo; His literary device serves as a metaphor for the multiplicity of human experience and the complexity of decision-making. By extending this idea to the future of work, I think the garden of forking paths becomes a powerful allegory for the uncertainty, interconnectedness, and potential for transformation that characterize our present and future of work and humanity
Yup. "uncertainty, interconnectedness, and potential for transformation" - all more relevant given the times we are heading towards
The social media industry isn't large, at least if I judge by the number of public companies. Yet their power is immense.
I remember coming across this adaption of Spiderman's quote when catching up on all the backlash Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) got about his reviews on Humane's AI pin. Basically, word on the street is that MKBHD's critical reviews have doomed Humane's product and some folks deemed MKBHD's reviews too harsh and said:-
"With great reach comes great responsibility." So yes - the power for many social media companies is immense.
Hi Amrita,
Great post. You know I can't resist a tech behavior question. :-D There is a natural progression from shiny penny, "new" or "fun" to "what's it good for? " where the novelty has worn off. There was a time (ever so briefly) when knowing what someone else had for breakfast was interesting by virtual of its newness.
Now, consciously or unconsciously, people are doing a cost/benefit analysis (both psychological and economic) of how any device in its current permutation of attributes and constraints is supporting their goals. Increased awareness of privacy and information overload add pressures to curate content, which often results in narrowing information breadth and creating those dreaded filter bubbles. The human brain has limited capacity, even if our phones don't. A lag in behavioral change comes from habituated behaviors for which people like to blame the social media companies, but in fact, the 'off' button is on our own phone. You can tell I'm warming up to the importance of digital literacy b/c understanding how our brains respond to stimulus helps us examine our behaviors without guilt and cultivate mindful, intentional media use.
Intentional behaviors often require behavior change which, of course, require two things that are hard: self-awareness and goal-setting. Obviously, conscious evaluation of goals is more effective. But for some people, choices are unconscious reactions, such as t hose made by the aggravation of hearing someone you don't agree with. For tweens and teens, goals are easy since their brains are hardwired to "social" goals, which is why parents are important to keep other goals, like school, on the cognitive horizon. But Snap allowed people to be silly or funny without the onus of permanence that comes with most digital communication and with the illusion of intimacy by virtue of narrow friend lists. In that sense, Snap more resembled conversational banter that, however banal, is fun which is a positive emotion (duh) but shared emotions have the effect of reinforcing the strengthening relationships. Social connections are one of the primary drivers of human behavior at all ages (esp. teens) and central to well-being. So another route to anticipating the behaviors in your final point is to start with core needs and asking what behaviors support the fundamental human goal of using and maintaining connections using (or adapting) the current tools.
Thanks Pam for such a thoughtful comment and loved this particular sentence of yours: "Intentional behaviors often require behavior change which, of course, require two things that are hard: self-awareness and goal-setting."
I agree with you that as the hype fades away from "posting what you had for breakfast" to a more thoughtful cost/benefit analysis of one's long term goals, I feel that people are increasingly gravitating towards "authenticity", instead of consuming media just for the sake of it. And aligned to your point on digital literacy and social connections, I believe the next phase of social media will be community driven based on people's values and goals, where they create an trusted and secure environment for people to share and learn from each other. It will be interesting to watch how social media companies build around this aspect of human behavior, instead of its current model, where it has become more "media" than "social". I know there is a lot of chatter in the decentralized communities to build such private networks using tokens to align member incentives and actions. Although I am not completely fluent with those ideas whether it has long-term viability, this is definitely something that both Uttam and I are reading about passionately to craft our POV in the next post.
"At the same time, social media is increasingly replacing the TV or local news channel, with social media users expected to outgrow the number of TV viewers in the U.S. by 2025."
Not that the information that we get from any Network source has been completely vetted, but the idea that this is where people will receive the majority of their news/information is a bit frightening. I know we are already seeing this, but we do have some other outlets to balance out the noise a bit currently.
I'm wondering how anyone is going to be able to judge the authenticity of the information they are consuming?
Good question, Tobin. The authenticity of content put up has become even more relevant nowadays. If you go back to the study by MorningConsult, I remember recalling some responses by survey participants where they mentioned that they now refrain from posting on social media because they feel their lives may be banal compared to the posts of many others (influencers?). The point Im trying to make here is creators have some influence over some people and kept them from posting about their own lives.
However, there are many that have started questioning the authenticity of many posts from creators. Many of those questions have even spilled over to news that is shared online where users question the authenticity of someone's tweet or the information in the tweet/post.
One of the ways FB/Twitter etc attempted to verify authenticity was to hire content moderators but over time that seemed sub-optimal. We'll be talking about this in the next section where many companies have moved away from content moderation towards other means such as crowd-sourcing
Uttam/Amrita — great work, as always! It’s fascinating to see how social media has changed our view of what “content” means. I wonder, too, – though social media is still relatively young – how consumption of that media will change as *we* age.
"enshittification" is Part of the "enshittification" of social media.
whoooaah... i was there !
& there omigosh & there
...gimme a few minutes...
gotts make a list....
If Evan Spiegel saw your comment, he wouldve smiled.
Very interesting, but what is DM?
DM = direct messaging.. as in sending direct messages. Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram some of the more popular ones
I do wonder if people are more willing to discuss contentious topics at family dinners, say, after 2016 than they were in 2013?
For me that would probably depend on what's on the table to eat😬😬😬.. or what's the household news channel😬. Jokes aside, i think in general its become difficult with the vast amount of information available (and social media was part of that, helping the distribution).. I find myself telling my parents over half the time that the video looks doctored or the source of your news looks unverifiable and nowadays more arguments tend to be the source of the news rather than the news itself, i think. Do you see something similar?