do you think the quality of online discourse will get better or worse in the long run? quality in terms of richness, civility, and a general sense in which social media feedback loops are positive rather than negative
I think it'll get even more fractured across public (platforms) and private (messaging) spaces based on class/politics/geography, so if we're talking in terms of richness/civility/nature of feedback loops, definitely worse.
I don't think much will change over the next few years — growth for the biggest ones will continue, but at a pretty gradual pace. New features/optimizations will crank up time spent & monetization per user gradually as well. And then at some point, either due to AI or a new computing platform/form factor or both, a a set of new paradigms will jolt the way people communicate, probably ironically resulting in the same mix of increased connection & online presence but further isolation and toxicity as well.
Great post Victor. Very insight and thought provoking. And I also don’t know what that age is but I know I am probably past it.
do you think the quality of online discourse will get better or worse in the long run? quality in terms of richness, civility, and a general sense in which social media feedback loops are positive rather than negative
I think it'll get even more fractured across public (platforms) and private (messaging) spaces based on class/politics/geography, so if we're talking in terms of richness/civility/nature of feedback loops, definitely worse.
more fractured makes sense. do you have a take on which direction public platforms specifically will go?
I don't think much will change over the next few years — growth for the biggest ones will continue, but at a pretty gradual pace. New features/optimizations will crank up time spent & monetization per user gradually as well. And then at some point, either due to AI or a new computing platform/form factor or both, a a set of new paradigms will jolt the way people communicate, probably ironically resulting in the same mix of increased connection & online presence but further isolation and toxicity as well.