There are reports that the demographic of Facebook is changing. The rise of the silver-surfers is certainly one factor (oops, wrong link! There you go), as an increasing number of middle-aged and older people are embracing online activity, and Facebook is clearly the most obvious social media platform. They are going to head there first.
This doesn’t explain all the changes, though. Younger people are walking away from Facebook. And I can’t say I blame them. It is a qualitatively different experience from ten years ago. Most – if not all – of my interactions back then were with friends. There wasn’t much advertising (was there any?), and my feed was pretty much status updates from these friends.
I had fun. It was fun. It isn’t so much, these days.
To start with, I think my online behaviour has changed. I am a man of an opinion or seven, and in these politically charged times, I have found myself trying to engender conversations about a range of issues. During the 2017 British elections, I was extremely vocal, and I believe this led to a lot of my “friends” (note the quotation marks) to unfollow my output.
That’s okay though. I was being very opinionated and ridiculously provocative, and this is what Facebook allows us to do. I do it all the time. I have my own rules for Facebook, and those that veer outside of them are subject to that click of the mouse. Go on holiday and post constant photos of the smallest details? Unfollowed. Go to a restaurant and post pictures of your food? Unfollowed. Constantly changing your profile photo so that people will comment about how great you look? Unfollowed.
We all have these rules. Perhaps we are not all as quick to reach for the mouse, but I genuinely believe that Facebook is encouraging this intolerance. I am sure they didn’t meant to. People are hard to predict.
Another aspect that has changed with Facebook (at least, in this user’s experience) is that I interact more with strangers these days. Twitter was always like this, and Facebook has veered in this direction, too. And this brings with it one particular problem:
Online strangers can be douchebags.
I have entered many an online conversation, often ones that are not politicised, with an attempt at a lightweight, vaguely humorous comment, only to be met with a really unpleasant, aggressive response. Usually from a man. I don’t know what it is about certain males on the internet, but there seems to be this need to dominate others. Or at least attempt to.
I do appreciate the catharsis of an argument, but I have learned that I when I seek such a catharsis, it is a projection of unhappiness. The more I do it, the unhappier I am. Of course, I never see myself as the aggressor, but no-one ever thinks they are a bully, either. And bullies are everywhere.
The relative anonymity of online interaction means that many of us behave very differently when typing than we do when speaking. Twitter is a horrible example of this – it is a seething mess these days, full of appalling behaviour, which is somehow exacerbated by the character limit. And Facebook is heading there.
I am not at all familiar with alternate forms of social media – say Snapchat and Instagram – and this is partly because I am in my fifth decade of existence, and partly because I don’t have the time (or inclination) to expand my social media output.
Well, that was the case, until about two weeks ago when Steemit entered my reality. It is different on here. The modus operandi of users is distinctly different. The meritocratic nature of the platform seems to make people behave better, for a start. Aggressive idiots are not going to get far here. I have seen some posts that get a little heated (all of them pertaining to political issues on here that I do not understand right now), but the vast, vast majority are civilised and polite.
Maybe too polite.
I am still processing this. Does this make the interactions less real and honest? Or do we need something like this that will “police” our behaviour? There is little doubt that people will behave badly if there are little-to-no consequences for that bad behaviour, so does the system here help regulate that? But in doing that, does it make us a little impotent?
I think one thing is for sure – a change is required, and Steemit is a change. I am finding it fascinating. Unlike Facebook, there are distinct rules here, some easy to find, and some less so, and that’s what makes it so intriguing. I have managed to disagree with someone on here, and on Facebook, the dynamic would have been intrinsically different, but here, it was an edifying, interesting exchange. I realised that my counterpart and I were not reading from the same page, but the more it went on, it became clear that we were at least reading from the same book. A similar exchange on Facebook would have taken an entirely different journey and destination.
The internet is constantly evolving. And it seems to me, right now, that this platform is a mutation for the better.
Facebook? I think it has peaked. I will stay on there for a host of reasons, but as the years tick by, those reasons are increasingly functional, and decreasingly social. Facebook has woven itself into my existence, but it is becoming a tool, and little more.
The king is dead. Long live the king.
Wherever he is.