The problem with follower counts is skewed incentives

Not only does it incentivize certain types of note formats (short, lacking nuance, provoking), but it also makes people regurgitate the same things over and over - leading to basically LinkedIn. People start using different clever ways of saying pretty much the same thing that doesn’t even need to be said in the first place. Of course, who decides what can be said? No one. So you get the enshitification of social media.

I firmly believe that follower counts should be resisted as much as possible and social dynamics more closely mimic real life. In real life our reach is limited, and if one person says something that thing becomes forgotten fairly quickly. People do not gain 100 followers by saying one thing. They may build up some social capital and eventually a following if they stay the course with their message, but those are few and relatively harmless. But when you have everyone competing for a superficial score, this ruins the social web. People start competing, making the rest suffer. I mean, it would still happen without a follower count, but to a lesser degree without the underlying incentive.

That’s all I have to say about that today. Maybe I’m saying the thing that doesn’t need to be said in the first place 🤣😯