Social media platforms don’t produce a common public; they produce competing sub-publics, each with its own sense of what everyone knows.
Holding Platforms Accountable Is Not Enough. We Need A ‘Compass’ For Social Technologies
This is the first series in the 21-22 Perspectives on Public Purpose blog.
Improving social media for democratic discourse
Social media have expanded opportunities for communication and political participation, but today's dominant platforms are optimized primarily for engagement and advertising revenue, contributing...
Free Our Feeds
Social media is broken: controlled by a handful of billionaires who shape what people see, say, and believe. These platforms profit from division, exploit user data, and lock people into closed systems.
The Case for a Public Social Media Platform - JSTOR Daily
Artist and writer Joshua Citarella explores why corporate platforms corrode democracy—and what a postal-service-style digital commons could do differently.
Social media algorithms can be redesigned to bridge divides — here’s how
"It falls to both the tech companies that built these systems and an engaged public to create technologies designed for social cohesion."
Death by a thousand likes: How Facebook and Twitter are killing the open web
Here’s one way to understand the symbiotic relationship between publications and platforms in the digital age. Publications depend on advertising dollars to keep producing content, so they need to hold readers’ attention. Big platforms like Facebook and Twitter already have plenty of attention, but they need vast quantities of content to fill up their newsfeeds. It seems natural, then, that publications have started relying on platforms to drive readership.
Reclaiming Social Spaces: Are Open Source Platforms a Path for More Human Connection?
What if social media platforms were built to serve their communities, not billionaires? Join us with the founders of Blacksky as we explore the potential of open source social media.
It's obvious why we hate social media
We need better internet platforms. We're already building them.
Social Media Is Now Parasocial Media
When practitioners used the term “social media” to describe the internet tools that emerged in the mid-aughts, they were giving a name to the kinds of platforms and protocols that allowed people to socialize with friends and communities of interest by using digital technologies. Twenty years later, users of social media are far more likely to scroll than post – and the content that they consume is often strategically produced and algorithmically curated. In this essay, I argue that the very essence of social media has changed. To more effectively interrogate what we are witnessing, we need to stop presuming that these tools are “social media” and begin recognizing that they are now “parasocial media.” Doing so raises new questions about digitally mediated sociality, not to mention the politics and governance of these platforms.
How Online Mobs Act Like Flocks Of Birds
A growing body of research suggests human behavior on social media is strikingly similar to collective behavior in nature.
How Online Mobs Act Like Flocks Of Birds
A growing body of research suggests human behavior on social media is strikingly similar to collective behavior in nature.
Who Makes Money From Social Media?
Investigate platforms' revenue redistribution schemes.
Building A Prosocial Media Ecosystem | NOEMA
There’s never been a better time to make social media what it always should have been: a tool to strengthen rather than strip-mine the social fabric.
Fact check: Is the EU launching a social media platform called 'W'?
Viral posts claiming the EU is launching its own social media platform to counter X, in the wake of various scandals, are misleading.
Indiemusi.ch
The current state of social media leaves us with a lot of questions. How can we stay united as music players amidst of platform monopolies?