That was a terrible idea. As I’ve written before on this subject, people just aren’t meant to talk to one another this much. They shouldn’t have that much to say, they shouldn’t expect to receive such a large audience for that expression, and they shouldn’t suppose a right to comment or rejoinder for every thought or notion either. From being asked to review every product you buy to believing that every tweet or Instagram image warrants likes or comments or follows, social media produced a positively unhinged, sociopathic rendition of human sociality. That’s no surprise, I guess, given that the model was forged in the fires of Big Tech companies such as Facebook, where sociopathy is a design philosophy.

Eoin Treacy's view

Dancing on the grave of social media has begun but it seems to me that the rumours of the sector’s death are greatly exaggerated. There is no doubt social media has issues that range from content moderation to promoting social anxiety and depression among teenagers. However, that does not detract from the reality billions of people spend several hours a day perusing social media forums.

This article from medium suggests China’s social cohesion algorithm for TikTok answers a lot of the western issues with social media but the price is telling people what to think. (One might of course ask how that is different from the current iteration). Here is a section:

If you look at the top ten TikTok influencers in China vs. America you will see two very different pictures. In America, the top influencers are lip-syncing artists, dance challenge connoisseurs, and internet pranksters. In China, the top influencers are artists, chefs, actors, and entrepreneurs. Podcaster and comedian Andrew Schulz made this point recently:

“We shouldn’t want some other country’s tech influencing us. In China, the way the algorithm works is that it doesn’t reward people doing stupid dances and playing with their dog. The algorithm rewards things they want to see their youth do: cool engineering, cool science… but in America, it rewards twerking, stupid dances, and things that are truly worthless to society.”
Anywhere large numbers of people convene will always be marketing venue. Meta Platforms is rebounding from a deep short-term oversold condition.

Alphabet is firming from its lows as well. However, it will need to sustain a move back above the 1000-day MA to confirm more than short-term steadying.