We made social media antisocial or was it part of a plan? Or both?

In case you follow me you should know that the moon is closer to the sun than I am to a conspiracist but just want to make it clear from the start. Though it's kinda pointless, do conspiracists admit it? I doubt but I don't talk to them that much (if any) so feel free to enlighten me in the comments🙂.

Looking at how far we've gone with the social media today and all the threats for our democracies their manipulative algorithms involve, I can't skip looking back at how the whole thing evolved from the beginning till now and my "career" at this side of the online world. 2006 or early 2007 a friend of mine suggested me to join FB. I tried it for a couple of months and it looked generic and stupid to me. Combined with some terms and conditions that looked creepy to me (we can all laugh about it today as we click a zillion "accept" per day), I decided to delete my account. Back in those early days before the FB hysteria you couldn't really delete your account but deactivate it. In the chance of facing legal consequences for this FB gave a (not that straight forward) way to delete your account.

When I later watched "The Social Network" I went like "I don't know Zuck but the starring guy looks precisely like a jerk who would make a shitty thing like FB" so I guess the movie did a pretty spot on job. The problem in my case was that FB hysteria grew so fast and worldwide that I was finger pointed for not having one. People gave me a look like I was telling them "I have no phone number" and the majority of them thought that I just didn't want any contact with them. My eclecticism costed me some pretty nice dates 🙂 

I got attracted by Couchsurfing instead, not a social per se but a hospitality exchange platform, which has it's social side by default. Amazing thing, game changer, eye opener, shaped me drastically. I liked it so much that said to myself from the very beginning "let's enjoy it before it becomes FB one day". And yes, it did. Not only regarding the spirit of the people who joined later (mainly freeloaders) but literally, as at some point it even adapted the "login via FB". Couchsurfing's decline is mainly people's fault, though the latest administration doesn't care about keeping it "clean" at all. But that's another story, I might dedicate a whole post about CS at some point.

Still around those early days of the FB hysteria and me staying out of it, I found MySpace a more focused and better overall social. It was the first real social I joined and stayed for a few years. This poor thing had it all except that...it was the first one and was killed by the crowd's stupid criteria therefore died only to open the road for the next ones. Well, it didn't die, it became some sort of ghost town. Which still is around actually but begs the question who uses it nowadays. I wonder if my stuff is still there after all these years but I don't dare to undust my account🙂

Still talking about those years that I was discovering one great thing after the other (2006-2008), while looking for the lyrics of a song googling led me to Jango. Oh.My.God. Best free radio ever? Yes! It had lyrics, video clips of the songs (if available), band's bio, no commercials, everything you needed! Plus you could make your own radio station based on your favourite band. But on top of that (or even more importantly), it had social features too. So when you were listening to a song you could see a strip of members who were listening to it as well. You could also see if someone had tuned to your radio! And yes, you could text each other. How cool! Is there anything like this today more than 15 years later? (Let me know though I doubt). I got to know so many via Jango, including a Jazz singer from NY for whom I played guitar in one of her songs that she co wrote with Mike Mills from REM. Wanna listen?

There you go:

(My guitar is the least politically correct one)

So what happened to this wonderful thing? This time it wasn't people's fault at all. At some point Jango cut all the social features and added login via FB. I can't think of a sane reason for a site owner to castrate a gem like this. Were the social features of the site the most costly ones? Hard to believe. I still use it from time to time but with a heavy heart knowing how awesome it once used to be.

Mid 2011 Google launches G+. With Jango castrated and me still being a fanatic anti FB I couldn't be happier for an alternative social from such a big maker, especially since I was a Google boy and their interface looked so nice. In any case WAY much nicer than FB's. And how awesome it was in the early days, you had your messenger there, your photos, YT comment integration etc. Then Google started taking one feature after the other apart to a separate app. First the messenger, then the photos etc. Was still preferable by me compared to FB as it lacked the ads and the stupidity/toxicity of the latter.  But, people let it down. Or didn't support it as much as Google wanted so Google let us down too.

After all this let downs that only made FB happier with less and less competition, combined with how FB became part of electoral manipulations, I could easily smell some conspiracy here. I don't rush to jump to this conclusion though. Not because I am sure that there's definitely none but because this will underestimate the tension of the crowds to follow the shepherd like sheep do. I don't have to tell you how hard it was to convince people back in the day about at least trying G+ if not abandoning FB as well. Just see how many people still use the META and X despite the fact that now we all know their dirty business.

In other words, at the end of the day it's mainly our fault, despite things decided behind closed doors. Yes a burglar is a bad guy who breaks into your house but if you keep leaving your door unlocked what do you expect to happen? Let's say for example that a government decides to force people to use FB and X. Everybody will go crazy right? And rightly so. Now that you have ALL the freedom to choose, and you know that FB and X make a shitload of money by screwing you what do you do with the choices you have? Not much (if any). Therefore better train yourself on what you can do with the freedom you already have before asking for more. Thanks.