Social media used to mean forums and blogs then became FB and Twitter etc. But FB is spooking me and I'm getting cautious about what I talk about there, seeing as how that seems to be the place to go for, employers, insurance companies, schools, government and others when they want to check up on you.
Whereas before I would set up an FB group to discuss a topic like cars and motorcycles, now it seems like setting up a blog is becoming the better way to go, because:
1. In the circle of friends, one has left FB to avoid stalker ex girlfriend, another left just because he didn't like it, another only checks in once a month.
2. Even though a blog is public you are not putting your life in one basket. Also easier to cover tracks.
3. Particularly on Android, the WordPress app makes posting and specifically "sharing" links to news articles to a blog very easy.
4. While one could share via email, its cumbersome.
5. The advent of opt in or out, email notifications for new posts on blogs is a rightous thing.
I might be wrong, but given the above, there might be life left in blogging yet.
I think you're right about the coming "FB recoil" as I see signs of it among the extended family. Me? I'm a creature of the forums. Any hope for them, I wonder?
Brad, strikes me that closed messaging platforms like WhatsApp might be suitable for what you describe. The only thing - which may be a positive or negative depending on your needs/intentions - is that as a closed group you wouldn't get external input from anyone other than those invited.
Amongst my own circles of friends, I have similar groups of people who are on facebook but we only communicate via Whatsapp (as in our case, I don't think anyone else reall wants to know what we think about football)
Similar issue but with a potentialy opposite outcome as far as G are concerned.... even less indexable content online than when facebook were holding it.
>closed messaging
Whatsapp looks great. I can see where that would be handy. I may have a use for that, thanks.
Part of the problem is fragmentation: not everyone on FB, friended on FB, knows how to use FB or I don't have phone numbers for everyone to send SMS, some people won't pay for SMS service or I have phone numbers but don't have email addresses, or a conversation gets going in email but people forget to reply all. Blekk.
The two mediums with the highest take up seem to be good ol' Web and email and free blogs play right to that.
And I guess I'm also talking about the "Share" phenomena, because a couple of Android news apps working together with the WP app makes posting to a link blog just as easy as trying to share on FB or by Email.
I think the web should be more user centric. I don't want to 'go' anywhere, anymore; I want to sit down, authenticate once, and have the web come to me, wherever I am, on what ever device I'm using. I want my bookmarks to be more like my desktop; I want to organize and group things, in addition to mapping them, in ways that facilitates discovery. Email sucks balls. The one thing social/closed systems do better than anything else, is throttle spam. I'm ready email version 2.0.
Dunno about an average user but that would probably make me paranoid as feck
The future looks riveting...
(https://th3core.com/chat/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sickchirpse.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F01%2FWall-E-2-e1359073627511.jpg&hash=11c1f251f718f57da609f65971494c0a0f09c073)
Dunno about an average user but that would probably make me paranoid as feck
Privacy and security are two different animals, and most of what people are concerned about, really just has to do with them feeling stupid later, not really anything illegal or even notable to other strangers. What part scares you the most?
When I look at what I post, 99% isn't bad. Email, google searches, whatever. And then, the most of whats left is just embarrassing. Owning my data, instead of giving it out to others, more and more over time is what I don't like. I see data different than most. If post something on some some site, whatever that is, it's mine. The site provides the platform and they control what can be on their platform, but they aren't entitled to my data.... I created it, it's mine. If I want to later, I should be able to delete it. I see it like sites are museums that hang others people's content on their walls, so others can see it. They create the museum and advertise the show, and we, as artists, fill the walls with our art.
To put it another way, if LM wanted to he could scrape all of our usernames passwords, and try to use them across 50 different sites, about 1/3 of us would get caught on at least a few. If FB did the same, that number might go to 75%. OTHER sites, shouldn't have your password.
the bit which would scare me is
Quote
have the web come to me
most of the interesting things I find online, whether its industry news, randomness or things to buy, don't get to me because they come to me but because I mooch around online and make it a rule to follow the links back. Admittedly I'm not massively active on social media on a personal level so I might not get as much out of that as other people, but I think that if everything comes to you then you most certainly won't see things which challenge your opinions or present you with a totally new view of something nearly often enough.
>have the web come to me
I'm with Gurtie on this one --except to, perhaps, more extremes. I actively and aggressively curate my 'feeds' and being able to do so is exactly why I left old media for the internet.
The really interesting stuff you have to dig for because the first page of Google is all Brands, in house Google self promotion or spun content.
I just started a new blog. I have no intention of promoting it on any social network, it has no inbound links God Google knows how it will ever get indexed. It will never rank and I don't care and I kinda think the whole thing is amusing. I have a few friends that might be interested in the content so I will spam email them the URL which is exactly what I did on my first site on Tripod back in about 1996. The only reason I'm writing the blog is I don't want the it on FB. Again full circle.