Looking back over old posts, I am reminded that I started writing about the effect social media was having on our attention back in 2008. That and how it created a 'time crisis' due to addiction – especially the need to perform on multiple platforms.
I always envisaged social networks as being facilitators, places where people could come together to get and share ideas, bouncing off each other before taking the conversation to the most appropriate medium for deeper discussion.
It happened for a while but things turned into a big shouting match, the winner being the one who shouted the loudest.
Even back at this stage I remarked about the importance of ownership, having your own platform (like a blog) on which you could write what you wanted and were not restricted as to how much you could say. I wish I had listened to myself properly.
My relationship with online life was contradictory: I saw the potential benefits but was equally appalled by the negative effects it was having. As of August that year I got fed up with the whole thing and left both social and the blog behind for much of the next 18 months.
It seems strange to say of something still in its relative infancy, but I suffered burn out.
It also seems strange that, upon my return in 2010, I asked if social networks could be targeted (and potentially broken up) for monopolistic behaviour and here we are, nearly 12 years later, and things are finally in motion. You have to wonder if it's too late and the opportunity has been missed.
