Communities of the Future

Have you ever felt lost in the digital noise, scrolling through endless content on social media, questioning if the value you seek is buried beneath the surface? Are you left pondering the value you get from being on these platforms? Our world is saturated with content; does the question linger—does social media truly enrich our lives, or is it just a relentless stream of information that leaves us craving something more meaningful?

Problems Unveiled

Noise Volume: With the explosion of content across various platforms, finding quality information has become akin to searching for a needle in a haystack. Misinformation spreads like wildfire, creating a chain reaction of inaccurate content. The result? A generation of second and third-hand content that leaves us yearning for reliable sources.

Volume over Quality: Many social media enthusiasts advocate daily posting to boost network growth. While the intention is to appear active, this approach fosters a culture of quantity over quality. The incessant need to post has led to a surge in noise volume, overshadowing genuine quality articles. Content creators, in a bid to maintain visibility, find themselves scrambling for ideas and contributing to the overall decline in content quality.

Likes and Views Obsession: Social media platforms often prioritise engagement metrics like likes and views. However, this emphasis on quantity needs to pay more attention to the essence of quality and value in content. The pursuit of high engagement numbers has given rise to artificial engagement pods—groups formed solely to exchange likes and superficial comments like "good post." The result is a distorted system that values popularity over substance.

Economic Pressures: In the quest for financial stability, many create content, hoping to become influencers and monetise their online presence. While diverse perspectives enrich, the oversaturation of content by those chasing fame dilutes the quality of discussions and insights.

Advert Overload: Social media feeds have become battlegrounds for survival, flooded with advertisements. This commercial onslaught drowns out the good content, pushing creators to the fringes of visibility. Algorithms that filter content often favour those with deeper pockets, exacerbating the problem. The smaller content creators are overshadowed.

AI Influence: The rise of Artificial Intelligence, especially Large Language Models, contributes to the dilemma and introduces more challenges. AI has opened the door for many people to create content; with a few prompts, entire articles can be created, exponentially increasing the flood of content. Fueled by poorly curated training data, most AI-generated content is misinformation. Thus, a person with little subject domain knowledge can create content. However, as their knowledge is limited, they need to recognise the errors in the content, which is obscured by a persuasive text from language modelling. This further reinforces AI training as more and more “people” say the same thing, even though wrong.

Aggressive Culture: The shift from healthy discussions to opinion battles has created a hostile online environment. Personal attacks replace constructive debates fueled by desperation and misinformation. The need to be heard often trumps the quest for understanding, creating a toxic atmosphere. For many, it is easy to get caught up in the prevailing culture of a community and respond similarly. I have been reflecting on some of my past responses; they were not the right way, and I was caught in the culture trap of the community.

Dissatisfaction with Big Networks: Major social media platforms are losing favour among users. As dissatisfaction grows, the essence of social media – fostering connections – is lost in the sea of discontent.

The New Community Age to Come

A shift towards smaller, human-driven communities will emerge to counteract this trend. Focused on shared interests, these communities provide meaningful engagement around specific topics. No longer will there be big platforms due to the noise, but more streamlined content with like-minded people. The challenge lies in discovering these communities amidst the noise, but they are crucial for fulfilling our innate social needs.

These emerging communities will take various forms, offering discussions, learning opportunities, and diverse forms of media. The market dynamics will shift to more micro-communities where people can return to meeting their social needs on a specific topic. There will be many communities around the same topic, each with its unique brand, culture, and dynamic. People may be members of multiple communities where they relate to the ethos and engagement of that community. You will find communities be public, closed, or even paid for.

Summary

Social media has indeed changed, and not for the better. The noise, misinformation, economic pressures, and AI influence have created an unsatisfying environment. However, the emergence of smaller, purpose-driven communities will be the new future. By actively seeking and building these communities, we can reclaim the essence of social networking and bring back the social in social media.