17th April 2023
Social media, now that it has been invented, cannot be un-invented.
Anyone with the resources and inclination, and with access to the internet, can create a site where others can post things for others to see.
The technology is not, shall we say, rocket science.
Of course, there may come a time when few, if any, people will have the inclination to put together a social media platform.
There may also be a time when few, if any, people would want to devote scarce resources to providing such a platform.
And people may simply get bored.
Just because a communications technology exists, it does not mean that people will keep on using it.
And from pamphleteering to CB radio, and from carrier pigeons to telegrams, there are many examples of communications media that fell out of fairly widespread use.
*
A barrister friend recently asked me what would be the next big platform after Twitter, as if I would somehow be in the know.
I said that it was unlikely there would be another single platform that would serve so many people in so many ways.
Already social media is beginning to fragment: LinkedIn has improved and so now not too bad for work-related (and thereby law-related) discussions; Mastodon is a haven for nerds and geeks and for those of us who know the difference; Facebook is the ghost of social media past, looking down at the graves of Friends Reunited and My Space; Instagram is for those who are impossibly beautiful or have impossibly beautiful pets; and TikTok can be as witty and informative as your preferences and the algorithms and the censors and the templates allow.
Why would people move (back) to a one size fits no-one single platform?
Especially just for typing in character-limited text boxes.
Twitter will (probably) not die, but it will never be the popular and splendid hive it once was.
And there will be those (of us) who will never quite abandon the platform.
But I cannot see why anyone would use it now, from scratch, given the other available platforms.
As the novelty of social media wears away, and it becomes just another form of communication, it will becomes as dated (or as timeless) as any other form of broadcast and publication.
It will no longer be special.
One interesting question, perhaps, is whether social media lasted long enough to fatally undermine more traditional broadcasters and publishers.
People will not be buying newspapers again in large numbers, and nor will they just want to read or watch what others schedule for them to read or watch.
There has been a fundamental shift in the means of broadcasting and publication, just as a Marxist would talk of a shift in the means of production and distribution.
And that shift also cannot be un-invented.
So something new is ahead, but we do not know what it is.
But whatever it is, it will probably not turn out according to expectations.
And so, at least in that one respect, it will be just like rocket science.
***
Apologies for the gap over the Easter holidays: I took some extra time to rest and recuperate, but now I am back to normal.
***
Comments Policy
This blog enjoys a high standard of comments, many of which are better and more interesting than the posts.
Comments are welcome, but they are pre-moderated and comments will not be published if irksome, or if they risk derailing the discussion.
More on the comments policy is here.
I find substack useful to catch up with journalists/ commentators dropped by their papers.
Thank you for returning. No apology needed.
Glad you feel rested.
I think the key challenge in finding an alternative to Twitter is this. “Everyone” is on Twitter. Thus any other social media platform will only have some of the people you wish to follow.
Good to see you back DAG – hope you have had a recuperating break.
There is an old adage that the more avenues of communication become available, the more inconsequential and less valuable the content becomes. There is some truth in this given the debasement of the (possibly?) earliest mass communication platform, the email, even though email still remains for me a necessary business communication method. Its lack of security, however, has required the use of encrypted business communications: whatsapp, Signal, etc.
I have never been enticed by Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc and so my only other social media are you and the FT. An intelligent, questioning and informed commentariat where one might learn something is surely the sine qua non of the homme serieux / femme serieuse.
People may no longer purchase hard copy print newspapers, but the FT has a global audience with possibly the most interesting and informed international commentariat, whereby it is not infrequent for the comments to be vastly more interesting, informed, or insightful than the original article (despite the ghastly American algorithmic “mediator” and numerous trolls). But nothing, absolutely nothing beats a face to face discussion in real time with warm bodies (real people) over a meal and a drink or two.
I’m glad you had a refreshing break and are back with us.
Glad you have enjoyed a good break; no need to apologise.
I feel that one of Twitter’s greatest benefits was the ease of access to experts, whether engaging directly with them or (arguably more importantly) watching them engage with each other.
If others, Mastodon etc., will really be able to replicate that remains to be seen.
A barrister friend? What do your barista friends have to say?
I’m amazed that you keep up your blog on so many days of the year.
I find selective reading more beneficial than following rabbits down holes or being led hither and thither.
Glad you are back. I prefer the blogs, they seem a little smaller, cosier and more personal. Twitter seems like an icy tundra to me.
Looking back I seem to remember the Policeman’s Blog, the Civil Servant’s Blog and The Magistrate’s Blog. Seemed quite revolutionary at the time and may have ruffled a few feathers – or been a setup.
Now the comment columns seem a bit samey, an interminable list of the many ways in which politicians et al are either useless or worse. But very few or no indications as to how matters might change.
My feeling is that AI bots may be the next media thing. Most articles in the MSM could easily come from some sort of bot. Just feed in ‘man bites dog’ or ‘slapper bares all’ or ‘is this the best new SUV’ and Bob’s Your Uncle, the article writes itself. No need for journalists.
I have found through experiment that the FT moderator is some sort of AI system – based as far as I can tell on a rather prissy American school marm. She blocks off-colour comments that have a US flavour but with only a slight degree of manipulation she can easily be bypassed. So it will be with most such automated systems, but not so far DAG! Such little pleasures are all that is left.