prediction time: why facebook and twitter are going to die

14 Feb 2017

ok this is a bit of a stretch, but i’m gonna put it out there anyways. i think facebook and twitter have begun their deaths. i’m not the first one to say this, but several factors contribute to me feeling strongly about this now.

facebook is becoming (might already be?) a media platform

whether or not facebook ceo mark zuckerburg wants to acknowledge it, facebook is a media platform. they are trying hard as hell to create and own entire content distribution spaces. their features that focus on and prioritize videos and image content are key. the platform is also somewhat obviously having an impact on political situations, despite their historical stance of denying that reality.

the problem with facebook being a media company is that it then has to take responsibility for being a media company. this means it has to do things like not allow false ideas to spread or take responsibility when those things do happen.

twitter still doesn’t really have a business model

a huge company with no strong sustainable business model is likely to collapse eventually. if they can’t keep up with changing technology by employing people who will doing the keeping up, they will die. that’s what capitalism is for, right? things that can’t keep up go away. right? lol. enough said.

we don’t pay for journalism

this results in news media platforms relying on advertising for revenue. this shifts how they do journalism and how media spreads (clicks). the weaving of this and the fact that facebook (and twitter somewhat) are becoming more media platforms than social connection platforms is deadly. news media sites, wanting clicks in order to survive, will continue to lean towards coverage (or at least headlines) that are clickable. this undermines tough journalism, which is what we, societally, need from journalism as an industry.

the interpersonal facets of social media are shriveling

people joined facebook because it allowed them to connect with their friends. they joined myspace for the same reason. when facebook showed it was better than myspace at this function, myspace died. facebook is sowing the seeds of its own demise by becoming a media platform.

conclusion: unless these trends shift, i fully imagine they will destroy social media as we currently know it.

writing	spell-check, link-finding, & formatting
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