Notes
Response to “Thesis: Social media snares people using friends as bait, gets you to provide free content, and makes you status conscious. Thoughts?”
There was social media before there were social media companies. The internet created the behaviours and etiquette we’re all used long before there was Twitter, Facebook or Quora. They were created not out of cynicism but a basic human need of communicating freely and connect with other people who share your interests. If anyone remembers “The Well,” you know what I’m talking about.
For many years, “the media industry” did not know what to make out of this. An article in a magazine is in the traditional media world “a piece of content”. Then came the internet and they created the term “user created content” as if normal people had the same motivation as big media corporations. This is where things started go wrong. When I talk to my friends at the coffeeshop or call them over the phone I’m not producing content - I’m being an authentic person who communicates. When you regard my voice, opinons, relationships, photos, etc. as content in a traditional media sense you’ve just degraded me from being a human being into something I don’t want to be and don’t percieve myself as. I’m simply communicating and the records of that are authentic media - not content.
Why is authentic media free? Historically there have been dozens of attempts by companies that asked the question, “If I make a video that gets 10 million views on YouTube, why can’t YouTube share some of the money they make to incentivize me to make another one?” Turns out we’re not motivated economically to do this. Voyeurism and narcissism are much stronger motivators than money. Practically all companies who tried to add money as an incentive to create authentic media have failed.
Are there no signs of the things you suggest in social media? Sure there are. As humans we weren’t perfect when internet came around. We gamble, we become addicted to things, we become obsessed with objects and people, we fail to understand the difference between long-term happiness and short-term kicks. Game mechanics, retention optimization, etc. are some examples of technology being used to optimize services for our imperfectness. I wont judge you if you play Farmville. I care about a lot of similar things in my life.
We should be optimistic - for the first time in human history we have a medium with 100% authenticity and transparency. Holy shit!
