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diff --git a/src/blog/its-not-social-media-its-marketing-medial.html b/src/blog/its-not-social-media-its-marketing-medial.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0bcd652 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/blog/its-not-social-media-its-marketing-medial.html @@ -0,0 +1,76 @@ +title: It's not Social Media - It's Marketing Media +date: June 28, 2021 18:27 +--- +<p> +Richard Stallman has said that social media sites don't have users — they have +<em>useds</em>. The primary reason for sites like Facebook to exist is to +generate revenue for the company (obviously), and they do so by using their +webpage as a terminal for advertisements. To maximize revenues, users (useds) +are incentivized and otherwise manipulated to stay online, giving as much +eyeball time to the ads as possible. +</p> + +<p> +Much has been said about how social media companies achieve this maximization +from a psychological point of view. Dopamine-inducing "likes", targeting users +with news/messages that will cause strong emotions (such as anger) to keep them +engaged, things like that. But what is the real technical innovation that +has made social media so irreplaceable in many people's lives, even those that +are rational enough that those previously mentioned "incentives" are negatives +for their lives? +</p> + +<p> +The basic functionality that a social media platform like Facebook offers its +users is a non-intrusive broadcast to all your friends and family. Now, the +"broadcast to all your friends and family" is supposedly the "social" part of +social media. But what do I mean by "non-intrusive"? I mean that, on Facebook, +your life updates don't necessitate a reply, don't start personal conversations +(at best, just a stream of "Congratulations!" or "Thoughts and prayers..." +comments), and it's not rude to just completely ignore them. +</p> + +<p> +Before, to announce a new baby or invite friends to party, you had to manage +your own contacts list. +</p> + +<p> +You would send postcards from vacation to a few select people, now you just post +the best pictures you got taken of yourself to Facebook, maybe with a witty +caption, and the best one of them all might even be worthy of Instagram. +</p> + +<p> +Instead of discussing clever and/or silly ideas with your buds and a beer in +hand, you post them on Twitter, hoping for retweets and likes rather than a +conversation partner. +</p> + +<p> +So while social media has made all sorts of social interactions much more time +and energy efficient than phone calls, email, snail mail, and real life +conversations, it also has replaced all these social interactions with much less +social alternatives. Additionally, we have to realize that most of the content +on "social" media isn't even social — it's marketing! +</p> + +<p> +Any platform that allows non-personal broadcast — like Facebook pages or +any account on a asymmetrical follow platforms (Instagram, Twitter) — +becomes a marketing platform rather than a social platform. Even without the +concept of promoted posts, Instagram has influencers and paid posts. Twitter is +all about thought leaders preaching their takes, politicians jumping at each +other's throats, and celebrities gossiping out in the open. TikTok perfected the +promotion algorithms to launch the careers of thousands of self-made 5-second +comedians and snake-oil salesmen. +</p> + +<p> +"Perfecting the promotion algorithm" is something you do to build an advertising +platform, not a human social network. +</p> + +<p> +Stop calling it social media. It's marketing media. +</p> |