In the past few years there has been little influence in terms of sheer significance in the social media space than the incorporation of AI in its algorithm. What was meant to ease user experience has created in my opinion a very troubling set of problems that needs to be addressed in one way or the other.
I am quite critical of mainstream media for many reasons. The unfortunate politicization of agenda's and viewpoints over transparent and unbiased reporting was perhaps the most pertinent reason. It is why I celebrated the explosion of social media into the information and socio-cultural space. Yet that success has perhaps made the ownership of these companies lose sight of their initial vision.
When some of these companies came on board they seemed to solve very simple problems in very innovative ways. Take the coming of Meta (Facebook) for instance which I view as the first major, widely accepted social media giant. It helped reconnect and engage relationships in ways that we had never seen before. The company that opened then seems like a completely different space now.
I understand that Media companies like most other companies serve the purpose of profiting their shareholders. While some are more generous to their contributors than others, this formula has not changed over the years. Competition has made the way these companies operate a lot more intense.
However, when profit and the fear of competition drives a company completely off the rails then users have to decide if it is worth adapting to. It is difficult these days to find old friends, or those reconnections because it seems so many things have been swallowed up by the algorithm.
Perhaps the future won't belong to giants if things stay the same.
