"Much of the narrative around social media has been relentlessly negative for the last year, and in many cases that is utterly deserved... This, though, is a timely reminder that ordinary people can harness the power of social media."
He cautions against dismissing social media completely as it can equally be a force for good.
That is undeniable but, until there are some fundamental changes to the social web, I can't see things improving too drastically.
Metrics are at the root of the issue.
Hearts, likes, claps, retweets, friends, reach, influence. These are all artificial constructs designed to push us ever further which, unfortunately, lead to sensationalism and increasingly extreme behaviour.
All in the name of engagement.
While these are still part of the social web I fear the worst and cannot see the incumbent networks fixing any of its problems.
@colinwalker Are claps "the clap" of social media? ?
@hjertnes ?
@colinwalker I'm afraid my opinion is yet darker than yours. Wrote about it here
@colinwalker sadly, in most instances society needs rules to protect the many from the few - SM is essentially in the ‘Wild West’ stage of development and self policing isn’t working ... and it will get worse before it gets better. At least we have micro.blog !
@dgold Love it. Point extremely well made.
@colinwalker that's absolutely true. The moment you can measure popularity people will swoop in to try to game the system and find a way to monetize it.