 Silly (or maybe not) question: So what exactly is social media for? For some, it is a way to sell ads into an addicted audience. But we are trying to get away from that with the #Fediverse. So if it's not that, what is it for, exactly? And for you personally: if you didn't have social media, what exactly would you miss in your life? Which needs or wants do you have that would be unmet? I'd love a broad variety of responses. Reshare? 14 comments
 @mattwilcox @vmstan Can you expand on that? One community? Several? Find one? Create? Grow? And then .. community for what purpose? What need / want does the community / communities fill for you, and how does it do that by means of social media? (Sorry for this barrage, i"m sort of trying to ask "Five Why's" style to get at the heart of the matter ...)  @J12t I think I use it the same since I was able to have a regular access to the internet (since IRC days): connect with different people, expand my view of the world by finding about new and different things, discuss a bit on topics that I might find relevant, and share stuff/opinions that (some) people might find interesting or amusing. Money, ads, reach, etc was never a thought. @ncrav "Finding out about new and different things" and people is a good one Do you think social media (here and elsewhere) is particularly good at helping you with that? @J12t it strangely works better than I anticipated: even though we might be scattered between different servers the information eventually flows by and I might see stuff that I would not see otherwise. The diversity, attitude, and openness of people here also beats all alternatives I've tested: my small following list is the most diverse I ever had and also the most interesting and kind. Of course I sometimes need to curate the feed but beats trying to escape promoted content and ads. @J12t It's a good question, and well worth asking ourselves. I feel like I addressed some of this last year on the podcast, when we looked at various social media as "meta-topical spaces", as part of the public sphere. The community answer is a good one too. But I think it's best answered by seeing how TikTok works, as it really aced the "media" part of social media, above all others. Social Media is both the content and the community. It's watching a movie together and chatting about it. @drimplausible "It's watching a movie together and chatting about it"... oh, I like that one. Maybe not just watching a movie together, but some other activities as well, but I get your point. @J12t 1/ Remembering people (e.g. highschool colleagues); 2/ Getting curated content by people I know personally and trust or kind of trust or I'm just curious about; 3/ Updating content about me so that whoever is interested can keep some track of me; 4/ Showing parts of my personality in the hope I'll get some real life friends; @J12t Ethan Zuckerman answered this question very well in this paper from 2022: https://www.je-lks.org/ojs/index.php/Je-LKS_EN/article/view/1135818  @J12t I was never able to participate in corporate digital social media. Being a Free Software type, I had no interest in building my digital social network on a centralized social media site that had *my network* as a *product* to exploit. Then the #fediverse came along, and I was able to start building my *own* digital social network out of the people I actually know & want to follow, *without* corporate influence shaping my network. Social networks can be *social* now, instead of products.  @J12t I would sorely miss the sparks of creativity, the celebration of nerdy triumphs and epic fails, the marvel of a knitted cap made for an underwhelmed cat. More than entertainment, it's a connection with others and their unabashed interests. Outside of the fediverse, it's difficult for that spark to come through, as it gets drowned out by influencers and ads vying for your attention, looking more and more like actual content these days. @box464 So the desire is to connect with others and experience, with them, their "unabashed interests" (I like that phrase). With a "spark". This is very nicely put, ty! |
Gregory's Server
@J12t I no longer have “personal” social media, I found myself too tempted to get into arguments that were probably pointless. I now only have accounts associated with my amateur history project and I restrict myself in what posts I interact with accordingly, it is quite therapeutic.