David Pierce at the Verge posted an interesting opinion piece titled “So where are we all supposed to go now”. In the article, which I highly encourage you to read, David discusses how changes in places like Twitter and Reddit have opened a gap in where people spend their time online. He states “It’s the end of a social era on the web. That’s probably a good thing. But I already miss the places that felt like everyone was there.”
I am here to say this is a wonderful opportunity for the web to be more social. As the aforementioned quote states, “I already miss the places that felt like everyone was there”. The question to me is, why? You can’t be social in a place where everyone is in one spot. Even in the article, David states “Discord is probably the tool best-suited to capture users’ social needs right now…But, uh, have you ever been in a Discord with thousands of people? It’s pure chaos, and requires you to either devote your life to keeping up or resolve yourself to missing everything.”
This feeling is how most people probably felt about social media in general. If everyone is in one spot and it’s chaos, why bother trying to be a part of it? It’s easier to lurk. Lurking isn’t social behavior. This isn’t what the social web should be. Also, for what it’s worth, Discord servers are obviously not indexable and not a part of the open web. If it’s not on the open web, it’s not social. Right…Twitter?
I don’t disagree with the article. The social web era appears to be ending.
- Reddit is still around but clearly has issues
- Twitter is basically closing the door to non-users and even unpaid users run into certain limits
- Instagram is either social photo sharing or…performative tik toks.
- Tik Tok is…certainly not social.
We’ve allowed influencers to take over and let social media become this weird spot where celebrities and journalists get to be social but it’s toxic for everyday folks.
I think the social web has grown and is purging the non-social parts of it. It’s been a great reset for me personally. Over on Mastodon, I follow some tech folks and engage there more than I had on Twitter. Obviously the blog is where I’d like to post most of my thoughts. I hang out in the chat of Chris Pirillo’s 24 hour Twitch channel. Just last night there was a great discussion on the different versions of Windows and what groups benefited from changes. Between the blog, Mastodon, the Twitch chat, and Facebook, I feel way more social online than I have in a decade.
The social web isn’t about everyone being in one place. It’s impossible to truly be engaging in a place like that. A social web is one where folks can find small communities to be part of. The power of the web is making these places known. I’m excited for this new era for the web, because I think it’ll look more like a healthier web I grew up with.