this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2023
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It's not just you — no one is posting on social media anymore::Social media is on the decline. Instagram is all ads. No one's posting on BeReal. TikTok is for influencers. The new place for sharing: group chats.

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[–] A_A@lemmy.world 252 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

"no one is posting" posted by a bot and commented by AutoTL;DR bot !

[–] inspxtr@lemmy.world 86 points 1 year ago (1 children)

dead internet, here we go!

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[–] pastermil@sh.itjust.works 19 points 1 year ago

Exactly the point.

[–] maegul@lemmy.ml 106 points 1 year ago (11 children)

My big take away is that social media as we know it is likely generational. Like real time broadcast TV, it may just not be a thing at all in the future, at least not with the centrality we’ve become accustomed to.

Polls run here and especially on masto bare this out. Mastodon, for instance, leans x-gen/boomer with some millennial in its demographic. It’s hardly a young persons thing. Once you realise so much of the praise and enjoyment of the Fedi is that it reminds people of the older days of the internet, the generational picture becomes pretty clear. 15 year olds today were born after Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Forums, Usenet, old Twitter are probably like black and white tv to them.

At the moment, I think it’s a major flaw of the Fedi, that it’s fundamentally backwards looking, trying to preserve older big-social designs rather than doing something more diverse or at least different.

An obvious example being private or closed spaces like group chats and the like including public versions if desired. This seems to be a growing form of online interaction, that is in a way more humane or eusocial. But apart from matrix, which sits separately, the Fedi is still stuck redoing Twitter and Reddit.

[–] lemmyvore@feddit.nl 47 points 1 year ago (2 children)

There's only so many ways you can arrange a group of people, what they post and their audience. The fediverse is exploring most variations right now and it came up with things like decentralization and activity pub which are unlike any of the big platforms of yore.

It resembles the internet of the 90s only superficially. The underlying infrastructure and technology is completely different today. Most of the lean towards the 90s is caused by taking inspiration from the way they dealt with similar threats.

[–] maegul@lemmy.ml 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

The fediverse is exploring most variations right now

Where are:

  • private spaces
  • messaging
  • chat rooms
  • my-space style personalised pages
  • Fusions of any of the variations you're thinking of?
    • Microblogging + Reddit
    • Blogging + reddit
    • Youtube + others
    • Any and all
  • Social RSS feeds like Google Reader
  • Wikis
  • Market places
  • Subscription based content platforms for any format (eg blogs like substack or videos like nebula)
  • Heavily privacy and safety focused platforms (with, eg, abilities to control who can ever respond or see your content)
  • Video shorts (which I personally hate, but there's probably something of value there)
  • Computationally rich posts/pages ... that is, content that is not merely static text of an embedded video but contains interactive components with highly customisable graphics.

Without wanting to be aggressive or critical of you here ... there's a good chance you, like many of us, are stuck thinking the internet can only be so many things because that's all we've been given for a while (like a long time ... like Twitter and Youtube have been around for longer than half the age of the internet, like we've arguable had real stagnation that might look like the age of Dinosaurs from the future looking back).

[–] lemmyvore@feddit.nl 12 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Fusions of any of the variations you’re thinking of?

Have a look at https://fedidb.org/software, chances are something has popped up there.

my-space style personalised pages

Now that's a blast from the past if I ever heard one. Do people really don't understand why MySpace died? The notion of "personalized pages" went out of style several technological and social generations ago. They're not coming back, and not because it can't be done, because it's an antiquated idea in almost every way.

there’s a good chance you, like many of us, are stuck thinking the internet can only be so many things because that’s all we’ve been given for a while

Given the above it's ironic that you perceive me as stuck in my ways. 🙂

Everything you listed can be done nowadays and there's software for it out there, way too much to list here. Thinking in terms of centralized and/or proprietary platforms is the old way. The new way involves offering services based on open source software, using portable infrastructure solutions, and making a privacy pledge to the users.

Everything you listed can be done either by setting it up yourself or by finding a service that offers it. There's a billion options.

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[–] SpaceCadet@feddit.nl 25 points 1 year ago (6 children)

My big take away is that social media as we know it is likely generational

I don't think that's the right takeaway. The demographics of certain platforms may be skewed, but people who for example were active on Facebook 10 years ago still exist, they're just posting a lot less.

I think engagement is down across the board because of various reasons: the continuing crappification of the various platforms, people are starting to realize the risks of oversharing and public sharing, people are getting turned off about loud toxic discussion, people are becoming aware that their data is being mined by faceless corporations who don't have their best interest in mind, in short all the negatives of these platforms have become more obvious to the average user.

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[–] Steeve@lemmy.ca 67 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

So this entire article is based on a single person's anecdotal experience, other than this bit:

Bruening isn't alone. Despite the efforts of big incumbents and buzzy new apps, the old ways of posting are gone, and people don't want to go back. Even Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, admitted that users have moved on to direct messages, closed communities, and group chats.

This links to another article from the same site, and the only quote I can find related to any of this is this one:

DMs are also crucial for younger users. "If you look at how teens spend their time on Instagram, they spend more time in DMs than they do in stories, and they spend more time in stories than they do in feed,"

This Instagram head guy says nothing about how "nobody posts on social media anymore", just that teens spend more time in DMs and stories than in the feed. This just in, kids do things differently than previous generations! Mind blown, A fucking plus journalism right there. You'd think you'd be able to properly quote your own god damn article properly lol.

Honestly I don't even give a shit about this content, I'm just so sick of biased opinion articles based on the writer's feelings at the time filling my feed like they've uncovered something revolutionary. Stop giving these lazy clickbait news sites your views and fix the dumb bot that keeps posting this bullshit.

[–] Hazdaz@lemmy.world 20 points 1 year ago

Welcome to modern "journalism".

[–] scarabic@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I really hate this kind of journalism. I have a friend who is at the top of this food chain: lifestyle section of the NYT. He is always posting weird calls for help to Facebook. “Is your dog experiencing flatulence caused by CBD supplements you bought online? I want to talk to you about an upcoming article.”

It’s like the article is written before the sources are found. Totally stupid and backward. An endless shitpile of made up articles on topics that make elderly white people feel like they are tapped into “trends.”

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[–] MonkderZweite@feddit.ch 64 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Translation: more and more people overcome their social media addiction and adapt a healthy usage pattern.

[–] jballs@sh.itjust.works 54 points 1 year ago (4 children)

That's not really what the article says though. Sounds like people are just doomscrolling curated content instead of creating content themselves.

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[–] reddig33@lemmy.world 39 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Megalomaniac billionaires ruined social media in their effort to control the narrative and ruin privacy. It was a neat idea when it was just a way to keep up with people you were interested in.

[–] Demuniac@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago

Well people turning out to be mostly idiots didn't help

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[–] Aloha_Alaska@lemmy.world 39 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Wait, what the heck is BeReal? I’ve never heard of it before?

Does that mean I’m old now?

[–] pbsds@lemmy.ml 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

At the start of each school year some niche social media gains popularity, simply because each year wants something new and "untainted". Last year BeReal benefitted from this. It likely won't survive for long as they're losing users now

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 14 points 1 year ago

It reminds me of SnapChat back in the day when every other social network started copying their features. TikTok has "TikTok Now" now which is what BeReal was.

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[–] VITecNet@programming.dev 35 points 1 year ago

"No one is posting on social media anymore"

Posted by L4sBot...

[–] query@lemmy.world 34 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

I signed up for Facebook for the first time ever, to comment on a local page about a local issue, and was first banned by Facebook for nothing in particular. Had to put in a phone number to reactivate. Also found I wasn't able to post if I included a link, a link to a government website, but I guess that's a very basic spam filter for new accounts. Then made some comments back and forth with no one really talking to me. Then about a week later with no activity, my account had been banned again, and now Facebook wants a photo. I don't even have photos online, and I don't see how they could use that to verify my identity, so that's where I stopped.

[–] lemmyvore@feddit.nl 20 points 1 year ago

It's standard practice for Facebook and it's been for several years now. It's simultaneously a way to combat bots and a way to start collecting data about you in case you turn out to be a juicy real human. They want your pic and your contacts so they can start establishing your real identity and recognize you in pictures posted by others. If you don't help them do that you're worthless to them so they block you.

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[–] JdW@lemmy.world 30 points 1 year ago (3 children)

My Fantasy and SF book lovers goup on Facebook has more posts per day than I can read and gets new members every day. My music groups on Facebook have even more posts and content. Linkedin has more and more social posts (not a good thing, but hardly on the decline)

Article is clearly written by someone with no initiatve or personality or insight.

[–] Patches@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 year ago

Bruh they used "BeReal" as if it belonged in the same conversation as Instagram, and Meta. That alone puts them way out there.

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[–] InternetTubes@lemmy.world 25 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The problem with online social media is being exposed to argumentative loudness for basic things that shouldn't be a big deal. That, and the entities tailoring themselves to gain benefit from them.

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[–] Eezyville@sh.itjust.works 23 points 1 year ago

Social media is dead. Long live decentralize social media!

[–] nutsack@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I'm not in any group chats so I'm just lonely and depressed out of my mind how about that

[–] Mcballs1234@lemmy.ml 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you need something to talk, I'm all open ears.

[–] snake@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

User nutsack needs to confide in user Mcballs1234

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[–] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 21 points 1 year ago (10 children)

So, we need MySpace. A fedispace.

[–] Fester@lemm.ee 42 points 1 year ago (3 children)
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[–] Dettweiler42@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago

My time capsule of cringe will remain closed, thank you very much.

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[–] yoz@aussie.zone 20 points 1 year ago (4 children)
[–] notnotmike@programming.dev 28 points 1 year ago (5 children)

My Zoomer sister-in-law told me about it. It's an app that will randomly prompt everyone to take a picture using both the front and back cameras and you have a limited amount of time to do it. The idea being that because it's random you can't really prepare anything beforehand so the content is more "real" and everyone can see what they all do day to day

I'm a fan of the reality part but not so much a fan of allowing your life to be timed by a social media company

[–] Uniquitous@lemmy.one 25 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That is the zoomerest shit that ever zoomed.

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[–] ThatHermanoGuy@midwest.social 18 points 1 year ago (7 children)
[–] AteshgaRubyTeeth@lemmy.world 20 points 1 year ago

Like the other comments say it’s an app which prompts users to post a picture at “the same” time. Its not actually the same time due to timezones.

The idea behind it is that you don’t ge to pick the perfect time for a pic when you’re at that great location or you’re looking especially cute. This means you’ll get an insight in the real life of someone.

Practically that means you’ll just see a lot of pictures of your friends whilst they’re laying on the couch 2 feet deep in a bag of crisps.

[–] Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

BeReal hit #1 on the app stores by promising a more genuine social experience. It was popular for months, but the gimmick got boring and it fell off.

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[–] TrivialBetaState@sopuli.xyz 18 points 1 year ago (3 children)

That's not true. I post on Lemmy and Mastodon, which I consider social media. I don't think that websites that communication based on algorithms aiming to serve unsocial purposes should be considered social media.

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[–] Astroturfed@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago

I quit looking at Facebook so, so long ago and stopped posting anything myself well before I stopped visiting. In my experience the only people still posting are people I didn't want to see anything from or just sponsored content, ads and people pushing their businesses. Everything's so monetized, curated and awful.

[–] stefenauris@pawb.social 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

wtf is "Be Real"? I never even heard of it. Am I that old already??

[–] CCatMan@lemmy.one 21 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] streetfestival@lemmy.ca 14 points 1 year ago (3 children)
[–] teemrokit@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

It was suppose to portray a more causal, carefree experience. As opposed to insta where people stage or try to show off. That's how it was explained to me.

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[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 15 points 1 year ago (3 children)

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Other apps like Dispo, Poparazzi, and Locket have all used various gimmicks to try and recapture social media's halcyon days — each had a moment in the sun at the top of the US Apple app-store charts — but none have truly broken through.

For instance, the content creator Nina Haines launched a group called SapphLit, a self-described "sapphic book club born out of the queer BookTok community."

Victoria Johnston, a 22-year-old software engineer, imagines the ideal social-media platform as a "safe space where people can just connect and you don't feel pressured to have a big following or a presence or be really well known."

And as more users and creator communities migrate toward closed spaces, the behemoths like Instagram are also trying to capitalize on this reality by introducing features like paid-subscription services that offer exclusive group chats.

Lia Haberman, an adjunct professor at UCLA Extension and an advisor for the American Influencer Council, said that Gen Alpha, the age cohort of 13 and younger, are "not embracing traditional social-media platforms and customs."

It's hard to know how the change will affect the online atmosphere over the long term — some evidence suggests the shift will create a healthier digital experience, but it also risks further dividing people into like-minded echo chambers.


The original article contains 2,197 words, the summary contains 214 words. Saved 90%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

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[–] skymtf@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 1 year ago

I mean I post pretty regularly to my fediverse accounts

[–] szczuroarturo@programming.dev 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I am not suprised in the slightest. They are extremly pointless ,i simply do not really care that somone is on bahamas or whatewers. The only thing i even used facebook for were a specialized groups and Messenger. The only real social media i cared about was reddit and similars simply beacuse they encouraged discussion about stuff and provided anonimity ( and anonimity helps massiviely when your opinions arent exatcly popular ).

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[–] SteWi@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I think the reason group chats are gaining is because we are so numbed by all the public platforms. Between doom scrolling and ads noone pays any attention to personal posts anymore.

For me personally I would even go one step further and say that I'm really annoyed by people force-feeding me their peronal life/experiences.

Now they start (ab)using group chats for it:

A group created for organizing rock climbing activities: All of a sudden filled with photos of this summers vacation. OK, we are friends and know each other, but still...

Another one was for a specific training of a mountaineering club, people who just met for this one occasion: Half a year later someone starts posting photos of their latest trip. And then the next, ...

Maybe in my case it's the generation that started sm (lol) with attention seeking extrovert posts that do not get any attention on fb/x anymore, so they go to group chats.

What might still be true for younger people is that with all the noise on the internet a group chat may be a place that gives you a manageable chunk of content with a private touch that makes perosonal involvement worthwile/doable again.

And now let's watch it get abused&destroyed by corporations.

[–] Targox@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

This was a very interesting read. Hard to predict how social media platforms will look in 10 years

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