My experience with Social Media was much like my high school experience (only with LESS beatings) Boy do I not wanna do that again…
Everyone thinks that they have something intelligent to say.
Sadly, they are mistaken.
Oh, and - welcome to the SDMB!
This question is probably more suited to opinions than facts, so I will hail a mod to move it.
Moderator Action
Moved from FQ to IMHO.
Also, welcome to the SDMB, @Julie_f ! We hope you enjoy your time here.
I think it’s the attraction to other like-minded people. Teenagers often feel lonely and isolated, and apps like Tik Tok and Facebook provide a way to interact with others no matter where they live. I think they call it linking up with your tribe.
People go onto the internet to discuss things with people, because it’s fun.
They go specifically to social media sites mostly because that’s where the people are. Admittedly, that’s circular reasoning, but I think it was largely an accident of time and opportunity that Facebook has the high traffic, whereas MySpace is forgotten about and message board sites like this one are quietly dying in the margins.
I go there because I am entertaining as all Hell.
I’m single and live alone. I get lonely sometimes.
Thank the Gods for SM I say.
I’m on Facebook to interact with people I know, e.g. friends and family, without having to write a formal email. For light, inconsequential stuff.
I’m on Twitter to interact with people I don’t know, but whom I’m interested in hearing from. E.g. newsmakers, journalists, pop stars. I even follow a lot of music venues so I get the news immediately when a new show is announced. It’s really easy to get a response from someone you’d never get to talk to live.
There are big differences between different Social Media platforms, and also between individuals use of those platforms.
I’m on Facebook because that’s where I’ve connected with a lot of distant family and “long lost” friends. I’m on Snapchat because a slightly paranoid brother has shifted a lot of our communication with closer friends and family there. I was on twitter because I enjoyed the flow of information and news my curated follow list gave me, but left because reading it all was too much of a time suck and the Musk-Twitter deal gave me a push. I was on TikTok because I managed to get a nicely curated feed of amusing dog videos, and left because it was also a time suck and the algorithm fed me some horrible shit too frequently inbetween the dog videos.
And other people are on one or more of those platforms for similar or completely different reasons. Some people are on Twitter entirely to follow sports personalities and sports discussions for instance, a part of Twitter I rarely if ever saw.
I think that’s the key. You can use the platform pretty much however you want, within certain parameters (TikTok isn’t the place for long-form written content for example). If you stick to viewing your friends, followers, or the specific people and topics you’re interested in, and stay away from the algorithmically derived “most popular” or “for you” feeds, then you can pretty well curate the experience exactly to your liking.
I can only speak for myself and I’m getting older and more out of touch by the day, it seems.
I use Facebook primarily as a way to keep up with a few scattered family and friends who I wouldn’t otherwise interact with as much.
I also use the groups feature a ton since I’m a vinyl record collector and a huge music nerd in general but few people in my real life, other than my wife, share those passions. Facebook gives me a way to connect with a group of like minded fans and hobbyists who get excited about the same things I do and who I would normally never have the chance to meet.
I’m also, due to work, church and my civic club, an admin on multiple social media accounts across different platforms, so there’s that factor.
Twitter is more of a breaking news platform for me at this point, though I do use it to follow some artists and a few humor accounts.
I haven’t gotten into Tik Tock or Snapchat, but my two teenage sons are into both and it seems the default way to connect with their friends.
They are popular because social media companies have designed them to exploit human neurology through intermittent rewards and the need for social approval. They are designed like slot machines, engineered to keep people posting and scanning for likes. Their algorithms are designed to capture attention, usually by triggering visceral emotional responses. Very few people are able to resist that toxic combination. Certain people, like teenagers and those with ADHD, are especially vulnerable.
AFAIC they have about as much value as cigarettes.
Can’t discount the fact that they’re all “free.” “Free” as in they don’t directly cost you money, but you still “pay” for it in other ways. Nobody would pay to be on Facebook.
I don’t think that is completely true. Sure, if Facebook came out today and said “Facebook is now a dollar a month!” there would only be a few, and they’d soon regret it when the exodus of everyone else made it a ghost town.
But that’s because there are free alternatives. If the financing models for all of the social media platforms collapsed, a lot of people would be willing to pay for still being able to message people and share their photos easily.
“If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product.”
Welcome, @Julie_f! Hope to see more posts from you!
I am sorry your experience with high school and social media was so bad. I did and do find social media entertaining at times. The thing is though many people give it waaay too much importance and spend too much time there. Don’t get me wrong, I do get caught up every now and then and spend an hour reading stuff on Twitter or going through FB groups. What seems to me that most people keep forgetting is that the ways we can use his Majesty the internet do exceed putting some hearts here and there and scrolling through dozens of photos. Again, all the above I still sometimes do and find it completely okay, as long as I find it fun and it doesn’t hurt anyone, why not. But frankly, I started getting a bit bored there.
The other day I found more excitement in printing labels with QR codes to tag my coffee and detergent than I felt in months on FB. (I feel the need to explain, but I won’t bug you too much with my latest weird obsession - I make a QR code (easy to do), connect it with my Google Sheet shopping list, and print it on a sticker. So I scan the code I stick on the product (when I’m almost out) and voila - it is added to my list for the next trip to the shops.) Well, now I just sound like a tech-savvy grandma - y’all kids on TikTok all day go print some food labels instead! Okay, I’ll stop now.
Now, really, nothing against social media in general but… You know, I do love my friends and family, but I don’t have to know what they had for dinner or how the sunset in their neighborhood looks like (yes, I am talking about my aunts, but I’m sure many can relate).
I would pay for just about any social media service that didn’t rely on surveillance capitalism and the attention economy to generate revenue. I consider those things evil. They have had a demonstrated and pervasive damaging impact on society and virtually any other model would be better. If Facebook actually started showing me things that improved my general sense of well -being and gave me control over what I did and did not see, I would pay for that user experience.
I know, isn’t it great?
This is the only place I visit regularly. My line when someone says “You’re not on ANY social media?” is “I waste enough time as it is.”
And that time is wasted right here (FLEE WHILE YOU CAN, JULIE!) so I’m going to get out on my bike now… well, maybe after I check The Pit…
They exploit the need for social validation.
I’m going with a slightly different answer, and acknowledge that those of us here are almost certainly outliers, so everything should be taken with a huge heap of salt.
This place is the only ‘social media’ esque platform I use, although my wife is on Facebook if 95% passively, following people in her hobbies and interests (mostly handcrafts and Bengal/Savannah cats).
And that’s where I think the appeal and popularity is. You feel part of something larger than yourself. If you don’t have anyone in your immediate circle that shares your hobby or interests, you can feel isolated, or undervalued. Go on social media, and a single click can show you’re one of tens of thousands of fans (or far more)!
And that’s a positive, in general, but it allows others that cater to darker impulses to find that they too are not alone. Thus social media allows previously isolated groups to find like minds and fulfill the same sense of belonging, acceptance, and empowerment.
Not trying to go down other widely travelled paths, but wanted to reinforce the point: being a part of a group is a driving part of the human psyche, and social medial can deliver it in spades, whether or not you then encase yourself in a bubble reinforced by said group.
[ had to get a mention of the bubble in since Octo is in the thread, and while I disagree with them that this place is a bubble, it would be wrong ignore that such things exist and can’t lead to serious issues ]