I was in a session earlier where one participant asked about the inevitable disintegration of social media platforms, and how the #AcademicTwitter / #MedEd social media communities might respond.
I thought it was a good question, although I was skeptical about much of the conversation that followed.
The consensus seemed to be that social media platforms require an enormous initial capital outlay, which is funded through investment, and investors need returns. At the moment, those returns have to be captured through membership fees or advertising. There are other possible models (e.g. micro-payments) but these have tended to be unsuccessful. And that because of the up-front costs in building platforms, we simply have to resign ourselves to the situation that every now and again, we’ll need to move to another platform.
So, we’re in the situation where almost all social media platforms are driven by commercial incentives that may not align with our values in higher education. And when companies are bought out, or fold, or pivot, the users typically have no recourse. Yes, there are options like Mastodon as a Twitter replacement, but that misses the point. What happens when Mastodon disintegrates? Or some other social media paradigm emerges that you prefer?
The solution can’t be that we move our networks every time. When I move my social media presence from Twitter to Mastodon, or from YouTube to TikTok, my social graph doesn’t move with me. And, after having tried this a few times over the past decade or so, I’m tired of trying to build communities (or insert myself into existing communities) on every new platform that emerges.
As far as I can see, the only sustainable, long-term solution is for everyone to own and control their own online space, and for you to engage directly with other people doing interesting things, using open standards like RSS. If I’m following you, I want to be sure that I’m aware of whatever you share, not only whatever the algorithm thinks will monetise.
This is why I deleted my Twitter account, and why I’m spending more time on my blog. This space has been around for almost 15 years, and I’m fairly confident that it will easily be around in another 15 year.
It’s not simple though, and it means that people will have to give up the convenience of using Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn for their online homes. And it will cost a little bit of their own money, which IMO is a fair price to pay for not having to worry about the algorithmic determinism that comes from feeds controlled by the financial incentives of companies.
It’s not a simple solution, but it’s the only one I believe is sustainable in the long-term.