Michael Rowe

Trying to get better at getting better

A thought on Meta’s Threads

https://startupy.substack.com/p/things-im-thinking-about-67f

I think Zuckerberg will be able to build another money making machine with Threads. But alas, this is not the feel good internet I was looking for. More endless scrolling, chipping away at my capacity for concentration. More people incentivized to churn out loads of content to please an algorithm. More user-friendly sameness. More pressure to share and engage. I’ll still be here, biting at the clickbait, but it won’t taste good. Which is the what’s interesting about Meta’s business: we continue to complain while it continues to print cash.

Yesterday I shared some thoughts on how I was feeling weary (and wary) of social media, and how I don’t want to keep creating value for companies who make money from the work I do on their platforms. As long as you’re capturing some of that value (e.g. in aggregating career capital, building research or scholarly networks, and so on), it may be worth your while building a presence on the platform.

But I think the value proposition in building another social media presence is already questionable. All that I can see are diminishing returns for every moment I spend on social media. And I don’t see how Threads is going to change that.


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