I think we're not ready for millions. But I also think there is a lot of atrophy of social media use in general. I know if I built up a following of say 5000 people I'd probably just quit if I got banned.
Discussion
> a lot of atrophy of social media use in general
Anecdotally it seems like this is true, there is no reason to post/share things anymore. Most people are slightly nervous of oversharing now, and they just don't see anything beyond consuming content. It could be because were getting older now and responsibility is becoming more important, but they'd rather watch youtube or hollywood tv again and vedge out on the couch after work.
I don't see much future in facilitating people shouting random stuff into the void. Usage will become more intentional. Interactions will become more communal.
as i say, the island becomes an archaepelago
this was never meant to be a replacement for the spook/corp funded "free" discussion of which facebook was the representative first implementation, and twitter the runner up, and third place for reddit
it's meant to be a replacement for IRC, phpbb, simple machines, discourse, discord, matrix... and secondarily stuff like github and gitlab and wikipedia
Yeah, stuff like Twitter and Facebook and BlueSky have to funnel everyone into one Gigantic Public Square, so that they can control the narrative and spy on people and sell advertising.
That's why Trump loves that stuff. Look at me! Look at me! Whole world must look at me! Buy $Trump! MAGA!
Tiresome as heck.
People just wanna chat with people about stuff they find interesting or hang out with their frens, or some mix of the two. And they don't always want to do that in public.
100%
An the people who are at the top (influences and advertisers) love it, they assume everyone else is like them and can do it like them and see no other world view. They're so isolated it's wild. They don't understand that it's massively asymmetric contract.
Rewarding to the few, time/wealth extraction and isolation for the many.
Yeah, I'd rather just talk to my frens or people nerding out with me about the stuff I like nerding out about.
Shame. But that's what it's become now hasn't it? It was about sharing with friends and community, then twitter made it global (first). FB is just strange ads and boomer wasteland. Instagram is basically just boobs from what I'm told (I was banned sometime in 2020). Idek what tiktok is. Unless you want to compete with millionaire YouTubers why post a video, it's essentially pointless as a very light hobby.