I've been feeling it in my waters for some time now that social media is evolving, the internet as we know it is evolving, past the advertising-hungry and algorithmic-driven nature it has adopted over the past decade, towards something a little more beautiful, human, real. Something where value, and values, are exchanged honestly and truthfully.
Will Oremus is thinking the same thing, talking about a "rise of a fundamentally different model — one powered by loyalty, exclusivity, premium content, and niche audiences":
Will Oremus is thinking the same thing, talking about a "rise of a fundamentally different model — one powered by loyalty, exclusivity, premium content, and niche audiences":
But while these feeds may be addictive, they’re also exhausting and numbing. When every post in your feed has been selected from a huge pool of possible posts for its attention-grabbing qualities, you can start to feel shouted at, manipulated, pandered to, and overwhelmed. Over time, it might dawn on you that the feed’s value to your life is less than the sum of its posts. Not to mention, the value to society of bombarding everyone with attention bait from all sides is, let’s say, mixed at best.
I think that’s part of why we’re starting to see a new crop of platforms that operate according to a different logic — a logic of loyalty, intentionality, and deliberate payment (whether of attention or money).