Social Media Platforms and the Dark Forest
Where we're at, where it's going.
The greatest accomplishment of social media platforms is convincing so many people that they're responsible for their users' success – even though the dissemination of information and subsequent connection of audience members is conducted via the internet itself.
As an example, in 1999, long before social media existed and before use of the worldwide web was ubiquitous, Jasmina Tešanović wrote Diary of a Political Idiot during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. Her diary was widely distributed via the internet, where it still exists on multiple platforms – and now, also in print.
Social media platforms are successful because they are currently the online locations where people from various groups gather. However, the ongoing success of any social media platform is reliant on groups continuing to gather there – which is, I presume, why social media business models inevitably involve making it difficult for groups to remain intact while migrating elsewhere.
For now, at least, everyone's still gathering on social media platforms. Maintaining a presence on social media is still considered essential for many professionals. Yet platform fatigue is increasing alongside disdain at the obscenely wealthy tech’ overlords and uncertainty about what to do instead. So I'll keep my review of social media platforms brief then move on to where we will gather online in the future.