The Problem-Loop with Social Media and how it creates a Lack of Intimacy
The specific problem with Social Media is centered around intimacy. The lack of intimacy on Social Media leads to disconnection with the people you’re supposedly connected to.
What is it about Social Media, a platform that connects you with all things in the world, unintimate?
- Profile Personas and how we measure success, e.g. followers and likes
- Business Model and how it benefits advertisers at the expense of the user e.g. data mining
- Algorithms that are programmed to keep you scrolling on the platform.
Social Media forces upon us a feeling of intimacy and closeness that doesn’t actually exist. As my own networks in social media have gotten larger, I’ve ended up talking about my personal life less, because a large percentage of that group don’t know me, … , or my interests.
— Jay Baer, “Social Media, Pretend Friends, and the Lie of False Intimacy”
How these 3 problems work in a cycle to create one big problem
In the beginning of Social Media, having a MySpace profile or a Twitter blog was a cool way to stand out from the crowd. However, 10 years later, now NOT being on Social Media is what stands out to people. The mass hysteria of Social Media is what started to move the platforms from an intimate place to connect with your friends, family, or network, to a place to brand yourself for the world to see.
This shift meant that the feed became more global, the content more meaningful, and profiles more monetized.
Problem 1: Profile Personas
After Social Media became mainstream, people began to change their profiles to be more ad-friendly. Every day users began posting an influx of their brand name coffee drinks, fancy outerwear attire, and brand new sneakers. People began to monitor their number of likes and followers, while some went as far as to pay real money for fake likes and followers.
The Social Media feed began to shift quickly from people trying to connect with each other to people flexing their best life.
Problem 2: Ads based Business Model
With users already posting content tailored to selling their own brands and products, Social Media platforms collected a plethora of user data to sell to established companies. These companies used this mined data to target advertisements to people that are most likely to stop scrolling, and buy their products.
On top of ordinary users selling their best life, enterprises now know exactly the users that are likely to buy their products. Taking up more and more space on the feed away from personal connections onto people & companies posting content to sell you something.
Problem 3: The Algorithm of Relevancy
Right when you are tired of seeing enough spam and ready to close the app, the algorithm gives you just what you are looking for to stay scrolling. Whether it's a funny fail video or your favorite sports highlight, the algorithm has more than enough data on you to know what content it takes to keep you hooked.
The Algorithm is powerful enough to shadowban users i.e. you never see their content again. The Algorithm is mysterious enough where no one understands what it is, so they keep trying different ways to make it happy. A happy algorithm means your content is supported on the platform, which means you can sell more to more people.
What Alternatives are out there that offer some sort of solution?
We are seeing an increase in consumer awareness and a new generation of user behavior that supports a new way of connecting digitally. Discord, launching in 2015, has grown to over 140 million monthly active users. Clubhouse, a private video chat platform lanching in 2021, grew to 10 million active users in just a few months.
Additionally, my team and I are building a web application to offer our take on a unique, custom, solution to this problem. Our product … Tribe Network.
Tribe Network is a micro social media for small social groups. Build off the principles of human-centered connection by giving you a private space to keep the flame alive with your tribe.
If you would like to see what this solution is, check out our prototype walkthrough. From this prototype, we are actively developing the MVP, or, minimum viable product, of the app for users to use and test for themselves.
If you would like to share your opinion of the problem we are set out to tackle, we created a survey exclusive to Medium members.
If you’d like to follow our journey, give me a follow.
