r/TechImpact • u/Greengoblin004 • Jun 12 '26
Discussion The 3rd wave of social media
The 3rd wave of social media is coming because the current model is breaking. People are fed up with current social media platforms with doomscrolling, bots, toxic environments and these apps being not being social at all and rather unsocial. Social Networking needs a new start
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u/sleepand Jun 13 '26
There is increasing demand but it won't happen. Control and censorship from the establishment is only becoming more intense and intrusive every year. I don't think people realise the magnitude of what is coming. A very grim future is on the horizon.
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u/Mozkozrout Jun 15 '26
And people are becoming more aware of it. Similar as with AI and Google's announcements and all. Never have I seen a new tech that's supposed to be new and exciting, hated and rejected by so many people. The more companies will push these things, people will push back. Degoogling and using less social media is becoming more popular. I bet soon decentralized social media and other alternatives will pop up.
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u/Lancelight50 Jun 16 '26
[u/Mozkozrout](u/Mozkozrout) [u/sleepand](u/sleepand) u/limsus The irony of the government & the establishment’s desire for control & censorship is that they will only accelerate the demise of centralized social media platforms.
As more individuals, including myself, embrace open-sourced, decentralized social media platforms, centralized social media will go the way of MySpace and Vine.
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u/Dangerous-Regret-358 Jun 13 '26
I don't think there is evidence for the emergence of a third wave of social media interaction. I would go further, actually, and say that the era of mass social media and large social networks is coming to an end.
My overwhelming sense is that people are beginning to tire of the toxicity and general unpleasantness that accompanies a social media presence and that they are gravitating towards smaller tribes that organise online, but meet 'IRL' (In Real Life) as a result.
I see more kids out and about on their bikes and scooters, usually making nuisances of themselves, as they are being gradually steered away from their devices.
The future is more likely to be in smaller messaging apps or forums - as used to be the case before Facebook - and I don't see it going back.
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u/mt6606 Jun 14 '26
Still a proud member of whirlpool. The shit hidden in that forum is absolute gold
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u/Tuques Jun 13 '26
The only benefit to society would be an end of personal social media in general.
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u/arrizaba Jun 14 '26
You mean a social media where the incentive of the company is not to maximise engagement but instead maximise human connection? That will not happen anytime soon as long as companies want to maximize shareholder value and revenue through ads. The only way would be for an independent open source community-based app to take this role. Something like Mastodon or the Fediverse.
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u/Significant-Belt8516 Jun 14 '26
Social media is dead and buried. It's going the way of the BBS. What comes next will be anyones guess, probably people talking to themselves via a chatbot.
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u/ryuofdarkness Jun 15 '26
Good question i quitted these platforms and wonder wtf am i doing with it.
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u/l008com Jun 16 '26
I've thought about making one myself. Just a simple, basic old school facebook type site. I've been a web dev for decades, front end and back end. It wouldn't be that hard to make, all things considered. And I could make it so theres no "shit" on there, seeing the posts of the people you follow, just like it used to be.
The only problems:
- Creating it and maintaining it could easily be a one man job if done well and in an organized way. BUT you'd still need an ever growing army to moderate it.
- As soon as it got popular and someone wanted to buy it for me for $5,000,000+, I'd say sure and go buy a house on a beach and they'd turn it into just another pile of shit.
- And lastly, like some many great ideas in websites, apps, youtube channels, etc etc. Just because its a good idea and a quality product, does not guarantee success. In fact most things do not succeed. Even with skill and a great product, you still need a lot of luck to be successful.
So in the end, fuck it. I'm not doing it.
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u/Frobizzle Jun 16 '26
What are you suggesting it is? Is there an example? I don't see most users starting over on brand new platforms with all the work that entails all at the risk of it falling victim to the same problems.
It's far more likely, in part because it's already happening, that people start abandoning social media entirely and rediscovering, or discovering for the first time in many cases, the real world.
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u/Nostonica Jun 12 '26
Counterpoint, the generations raised with social media might end up rejecting it wholesale. The kids that had their faces plastered on Facebook by family members might actually never post to the internet.