The Change in Social Media Dynamic - What Matters Most to You?

Dusting down the Filco getting ready to type (note: I am now clearly typing); confronted by a predicament of what social media platform to use after a long break - some might even say it was a white flag event. Over the last two months I have terminated my Facebook account and waiting on final removal of my Twitter account wondering what platform I should be using for my own personal fulfilment; to anyone who wants to get on board? The more the merrier!

I often like to think that being born in the 90's has given me and my peers a somewhat interesting perspective on technology and more importantly social media as we grew up through it's development. This started with grey box single core XP systems, hours on MSN Messenger which was the equivalent of any mainstream messenger app today, including the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat which all have integrated messenger facilities. Other than the significant platform change Blackberry Messenger brought us not much has really changed regards to communication; has it?

Lets look at a brief history of social media. MySpace (est. 2003) kicked off the Social Networking race; while it was cool to upload all your best emo tracks for your friends and more importantly, the opposite sex to see; the overall experience was clunky yet at the time it was a big hit. Facebook (est. 2004) changed the game with a fixed layout which gave the social media experience continuity and quickly became the number one social media platform and arguably, still is to this day (it's 2020 things change fast in this space...). Along side these platforms at the time you had the growing space of YouTube (est. 2005) which was never fully utilised at the time by content creators other than the truly entrepreneurial and creatives - which I am sure if they stayed the course are no doubt statistically more successful than content creators today - the importance of early adoption remains withstanding.

Moving on to 2006 Twitter entered the scene with a brand new characteristic primarily determined by it's limited character count of 140. This demanded a certain amount of creativity in order to get whatever point you were trying to get across at the time. I believe the character count today is 280 but I couldn't care less to check. You could rename Twitter to Triggered for a number of reasons today.

As Social Media developed as did new companies offering something innovative to provide a different experience for its users. WhatsApp (est. 2009) brought about a great free messaging service for mobile which plugged a practical gap in the market as mobile phones developed into 'smart' phones - I would dispute that definition is entirely dependent on the end user, mind.

Instagram (est. 2010) hit a huge market with images being the primary communication method - changing the bandwidth game entirely creating a digital space for creative portfolios across the spectrum; from artwork, high quality photography to insta-models (quite literally). Snapchat (est. 2011) built on this idea with an integration of ideas that could be described as an Instagram/WhatsApp love-child. The most recent application to note is TikTok which (as I see it) has developed the idea of Snapchat but focussed on adding more value, in a short-attention span range specifically designed for the Social Media generation. I'll be honest, I just don't get TikTok and that's not to disregard it's use especially in business targeting a specific audience.

Talking of business - you would have to be clinically insane to not utilise all of these applications for marketing purposes if you run any business. Participation equals growth and sustainability while non-participation can only equal maintenance in the now; with future contraction which could simply be a result of increased marketing cost by not using the correct avenue (yes, social media is the correct avenue).

Note: There are relevant Social Media platforms to include in the above basic diagram - there's no style I'm afraid...

There are cross-overs with the likes of Facebook offering more or less everything although as you head towards the high bandwidth end of the scale it becomes less relevant in the field of primary video and audio communications comparative to other more mature platforms.

Elon Musk plans to take us beyond the scale of Video/Audio format but for now there's been a trend in duration with popular YouTube podcasts and shows exceeding 3 hours in duration, namely The Joe Rogan Experience. There was a time sitting around on your arse watching a film for 3 hours was too long never mind watching two or more people talk for that period of time in excess. I'm not going to make comparisons of intellect between low bandwidth Twitter and Snapchat users to high-bandwidth Podcast viewers and listeners or Bloggers; but there definitely needs to be an awareness between the formats especially when anything sensitive or important is being discussed. For more information type anything relevant to the world into Twitter and navigate some comment sections...

So what's the change in Social Media Dynamic?

I would argue that the main use for low-bandwidth communication platforms is impact marketing taking advantage of short-attention spans. As time moves on we're getting used to 5 second adverts on YouTube despite the initial uproar. Special thanks goes to AdBlocker here. As more focus heads into the field of marketing are we subsequently diluting the foundation that Social Media stood by - the end user experience. With more users looking away from key platforms like Facebook and Twitter because of the biased political stances these companies are taking from rights management to censorship; as they invest more in their business model of extrapolation, are we not doing a great disservice to our small content creators as a result?

The perceived freedoms of many of the mentioned social media platforms are slowly disintegrating and we have to ask ourselves what really matters most?

What Matters Most to You?

The platforms we choose to use, regardless of our intent is ultimately governed by the platforms themselves. Monetisation policy becoming more stringent and end users are being increasingly commodified; through search engine trackers and digital profiles of users being created for the financial gain of now, mega-tech companies with Facebook, Microsoft, Apple and even Amazon being at the forefront. They all have one thing in common - they hold huge amounts of end user data.

Even before the creation of Social Media Platforms; the infancy of social media has always been around since the advent of the Internet and mainstream computing via email, message boards and instant messenger services. The questions of importance is what has changed? How does that impact us as end users and what changes will you make to shape the future of social media?