It’s Time Social Networks Make a Comeback

It’s 2009. You wake up to the sound of the whistling wind, cracking fall leaves, and a neighbor’s lawn mower in the distance. You open your blinds to rays of sunlight so radiant your skin warms. You finish your morning routine and meet the rest of your family downstairs for a home-cooked breakfast and good conversation. All without once thinking about whether or not an unread notification was rotting on your home screen. If your phone even has a home screen, that is.

The following is an opinion editorial written by Solo Ceesay Co-Founder and CEO of Calaxy, a next-generation social platform redefining the creator-fan relationship. Before co-founding Calaxy with his business partner, Brooklyn Nets star Spencer Dinwiddie, Solo held the position of Securitization Investment Banker at Citi after graduating from the Wharton School of Business.

Older Gen Zers and Millennials remember these all too well. What’s a little less agreed upon is when and what catalyzed the shift of our lives online. Life today feels like a major departure from the good ‘ole days as outlined above – even though a mere 15 years have passed. Today it’s commonplace for families to share meals in silence while mentally elsewhere on their phones. Even at that, it seems more commonplace for families to skip out on group meals altogether.

Over the past five years and largely due to the pandemic, we’ve seen a similar regression in how we spend time with people outside our families. Innovations in technology and entertainment have introduced a whole new level of convenience to the end consumer, each often coming with its own forum or application to turn every product into an ‘experience’. Social media companies become the biggest benefactors of these developments. Looking back, it’s clear there was a misalignment between what users wanted and what companies created a need for.

Capitalism and Social Don’t Really Mix

It’s hard to pinpoint what exactly led to the demise of the life we once knew. It’s important to distinguish the two eras of online communication: social networking and social media. As one might imagine, social networking and social media platforms share many similarities. Both allow users to connect with others virtually, discover new people, content, and experiences, and publish their own content. Each model grew wildly popular in the first decade of the millennium, but the pursuit of profits erased social networking and laid the foundations for social media’s dominance.

What really made social media different from the social networking platforms of the past was the introduction of the algorithm.

Social media companies invested much of their time and resources into algorithms that prioritize engagement above all else. Social networking sites historically placed less weight on engagement figures (and the advertising revenue this brought in), with a greater focus on the end-user’s journey and experience. There’s far more money in advertising and pushing products in front of users than there is in allowing them to connect with one another – perfectly evidenced by how Meta chose to prioritize Instagram over Facebook

Instagram’s early days were much like Facebook’s in that most of its usage was supplemental to an IRL friendship. As mobile technologies exploded, so did usage. All of sudden, your phone fulfilled basically every utility of a personal computer and had a camera fit for a fashion shoot. These developments proved critical in what would follow – arguably suggesting that Instagram’s growth wasn’t attributable to its technology, but rather the technological advances going on in the world around it.

When hardware advancements started to slow, Meta’s next move was to ensure that once a user was acquired they’d be there for life. The easiest way to influence that behavior would be to introduce an algorithm that makes sure of it. What could go wrong?

This kicked off a full-on assault on our attention. Content was algorithmically sorted to maximize an end-user’s time spent on the platform. We lost the curated highlights of what’s going on with our friends.. Constant reiterations and more blatant and aggressive changes to Instagram’s algorithm resulted in users seeing less and less of their friends and family, and more content tailored to cause outrage at strangers, along with covert and overt ads pushed by influencers.

Conclusion

The death of social networking wasn’t purely in vain. There have been advancements that people have welcomed – take TikTok and all of its success, stemming from its algorithm. TikTok is the world’s most sophisticated and multi-dimensional algorithm. Businesses and individuals alike have greatly enjoyed the visibility and access to the rest of the world that TikTok provides. On the flip side of that, people struggle to leave the app – with many sinking hours of their day into scrolling the platform.

What seemingly brought us so much closer to things that were very far away, has pulled us away from the connection that social networking sought to create. Users are more likely to be dumpster diving through a never-ending vat of irrelevant internet waste or being told what to buy than seeing their childhood friend’s wedding. And it shows. We’ve never been more hateful, angry, and controversial on the internet. All the while, concerns about the impact social media has had on this generation’s mental health continue to grow. Strangely enough, as awe-inspiring technology has become, the nostalgic bias that looms in the backdrop suggests we all might be missing those good ‘ole days. It won’t be easy but perhaps it might be worth it to look backwards in order to go forwards.