How We Should Rescue Social Media

To make it social again

Social media. Right now I don’t want to use it anymore. I don’t want to use Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and I would even like to delete my accounts there. But if it were that simple…

Instagram:

😕 Oh hey! That’s a house I DON’T have
☹️ Oh hey! That’s a hottie I DON’T date
🙁 Oh hey! That’s a fit person I DON’T look like

It’s this tweet from Pieter Levels that made me think. Nowadays, social media no longer seems to be about social contact, but only maintaining one’s social status. Get recognition. Wrong recognition. Not for things you have done, but for things you have, or pretend to have.

On the one hand, we use social media to feel good about ourselves through this recognition. On the other hand, we also feel bad about social media, for example, when American presidents are spreading their racist messages again and a normal user would have been banned from the platform for a long time.

The companies behind the social networks are no longer interested (although they still promise) in improving the world and bringing people closer together. They’re all about money. The billions of dollars that can be earned with ads that are personalized for each user on the basis of their analyzed behavior. It’s about keeping users on their website or app for longer to show more ads and earn more money.

What we need to rescue social media is a network without advertising. Without bragging. And without the like addiction of some users. Preferably a network, where you pay a small amount of money monthly and are not annoyed with advertisements, Trump-tweets or BuzzFeed-links, where it’s all about your friends. About the Social.

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