We bemoan services like insta, Spotify, twitter .. but it comes down to being able to discover new content that’s right for the user at just the right intervals. And that’s hard to do right without a lot of user data.
Even switching from Spotify to Apple Music, it’s the dopamine rush of the new playlist I find myself missing, despite understanding how much data it takes across 3-4 apps to make it appear so intuitive.
The way apps have all been designed to be addictive has this effect where :
1. merely being functional as intended is annoying.
We expect to be surprised and delighted. And like all addictions, we then need more of the effect to even notice it - eg TikTok and 7 second videos.
2. Doing more effective, meaningful things are less rewarding that doing fast, less effective things. Eg duolingo is rewarding and addictive. But less effective than babble.
Discord is doing well because - among others things- it allows people to cluster and meet around interests or identities.
It functions like an online version of meetup.com
The servers that do well are heavily moderated and have admins and assistants sparking discussion, or hosting voice chats or watch parties at well publicised times. It’s work. Something I do not envy them for doing.
I wonder if that’s a way to make social media more human and less flamey.
Socialising is hard. Making friends is hard. Maintaining or creating a social group is hard. Community building is hard.
And we’re kind of like the people in wall-e for doing this online because we’ve gotten so used to recommendations and who to follow lists.
But I think that’s what will ultimately decide which platforms last and get the most users. And it might be down to having human mods here to make it better than the other hellsite.