Hello Steemians,
I’m a French student who is studying new technology and this is my first post.
I’m currently writing my master thesis on Steemit. I’m convince that Steemit is the future of social media and that is the solution against social cooling.
I’m doing a quantitative study to mesure the level of trust in steemit if you want to help me here is the link : http://edhec.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_2aczBYRMhCw6EQJ (it takes about 40 seconds)
Have you ever heard about Social Cooling?
Social cooling is a concept theorized by Tijman Shep, a Dutch researcher. According to him, we are increasingly vigilant online and proceed to self-censorship because we feel observed and we know that our data is used. The digital reputation and the image we leave on the internet are paramount nowadays. Thus Tijman describes the situation as a quest for conformism to avoid missing any kind of opportunity.
The social cooling will soon be studied in large scale in China by 2020. The government will set up a rating system of its citizens based on the data it recovers on them. For example, if a Chinese citizen has too many bad friends it will be more difficult for him to get a loan. Their only solutions to get a good rating and access to good jobs for example will be to follow the code of good conduct provided by the government.
This last example is extreme but I think it illustrates the social cooling pushed to the maximum.
This phenomenon is impossible to quantify for the moment and it affects in my opinion only people who are aware and sensitive to the exploitation of data. In my opinion, this type of behavior remains a minority, however a loss of confidence in social networks could lead to social cooling on a large scale and this will be the death of social media. If no one creates content, the network will no longer be powered and the interest of users for the platform will gradually fade.
Steemit is not analyzing your data because it’s not their business model, in my opinion there is more privacy on Steemit, what is your opinion ?
