Something something about the internet and to be a human online
Bits about social apps and why we need better ones. Apps make being online hard :")
The internet is vast and ever expanding. It has small pockets where we feel connected and belonged. It has enough content for any rabbit hole one would like to burrow into. There’s so much good content we’ll never be able to get to in one lifetime. Lately, we spend so much time on social apps and I’ve been wondering about them. Wondering a lot because I was also mostly on a break for the last 9 months. I am going to write about social apps and some observations (this article is mostly a personal one. Will try to be mostly objective from the next one). Here we go.
How did most social apps come to be
I’ll try and make a small case for why you, me or anyone else should care about the social apps we use.
Offline social interaction or ecosystem is very intricate. Think of a classroom or a college club you were a part of. Your very presence in that space tells a lot about you, your interest, you’re physically there, the people you talk to, what you talk and everything. Every offline gathering of 2 or more people is so information rich. Social apps are an attempt to translate offline to online and a few other use cases. It definitely is an extension of the real world. Or ideally, they should be I think.
But most social apps we use are experiments that have gone viral and millions of dollars spent to make sure we keep going back to them for no clear intent or reason except for the company to make money. Except for a few use cases, the rest are unintentional and have even become a habit at this point. A friend made this observation that people are addicted to a feed which is a form of easily accessible cheap dopamine.
They do solve boredom as a use case (a friend from twitter pointed out this).
No one taught us how to use these apps. We mostly aped each other and somehow decided this is how it’s used.
If you and most people you know are spending a minimum of 1-2 hours daily on these apps, do you not think these apps need to be built intentionally and solve some better use cases and problems you have and not just someone somewhere trying to increase the user’s daily time spent metric on the app?
How would you rather use part of the time you spend here?
This line of thought over the last year made me question the premise. I’m going to research and write on these and some days just rant. Would love to talk to you if you want to discuss how you use social apps and the opinions/problems you have with it. Ideally, at some point in the future, we build a social app using all this information. Network effect based apps are hard to build though.
What is self-expression?
It is a personal answer.
Take a moment to think about what is for you and who do you want to express it to.
What are some spaces (offline and online) where you feel comfortable to express? If you’ve not got one are you trying to find or create such a space?
If you’ve not wondered much about it and if you do find new answers to this, I’d love to know what you discovered.
Are photos and little bit of quirky captions the only way of self-expression on the internet?
Most social networks defaulted to using photos as the medium of content. Sure, it is a low threshold: find a decent picture, write a quirky and get it out there instantly. But this did get complex because when you start setting a bar for photos, of good and bad photos.
Most day-to-day life is mundane and it is so for the rest as well a photo slice of a moment isn’t a great representation and it really shouldn’t affect the quality of one’s photos or moments which are great too. These are status games and they suck. When you figure you don’t want to partake in this you open up a whole new outlook. You can read this really long article on Status as a Service to know more about how platforms function (I’ve only read half. it’s long and nice).
Is it just me or people don’t post as frequently as they used to in the last 2 years?
The more you follow the better. Now comes to bite you back
Your close friends would love to know about but you have followers whom you aren’t comfortable sharing or don’t know that well to share the same info with but let them follow your private account anyways. And you also felt obligated to follow back and now you get info from someone you hardly know. It’s a mess.
How is content creation distributed amongst the people on apps?
This page from the cold-start problem is a nice read. The whole chapter and the book too. I’m at chapter 7 off 34.
What really is authentic self-expression for you?
Do comment below. I nudge because a lot of people are trying to figure out what it is and sometimes it’s hard to word it. What is it to be human online is the other question I have. How can your social handle be a reflection of you? A tiny bit at least.
Handle with care
We often never think much about how we interact with other’s content. A mindless comment or take does affect people. But one’s content is also a nice opportunity to interact with them, know them and a lot more. Next, the time you like a post and feel like commenting or sharing do it without a lot of thought.
Do interact with the pages/people/content you like. Share quality content you consume with others. In a sea of not so useful feed, it’s a nice way to add something good every once in a while.
Okay, I’ve been side tracking (I try not to, it’s really hard).
Posts vs Stories on Instagram
Folks do post more stories than posts these days. Is it because it is ephemeral? I sometimes wonder what separates a post from a story. Do you?
Did ever post and delete a story or a tweet? Why? I honestly have quite a lot.
I do like the design of Snap a lot. I wrote 300 words about it long ago on Nicheless Blog. Do check out Nicheless if you’re trying to get started with writing. It has a limit of 300 words per piece.
How can social apps enable self expression and let us be just us?
Is it form? More filters on who you share it with? Not more face filters I think. I don’t know the answer but I do know it should feel a lot simpler to be able to express. It need not be profound stuff or art. Just having a comfortable enough space to put oneself out there. After all, we spend so much time in different dimensions of concentrated pixel grids.
I envy the people who have figured out ways to be themselves on socials. This right here is a tiny attempt of mine to find what works for me I guess. Is envy always bad? DM if you want me to send these pages or posts your way.
Why does expression matter?
Most of us live within our heads. So much goes on in there. Some nice, some ugly, some firecrackers and some feel. Avenues and spaces where you can take the stuff in your head, process it and put it out matter. It can be written, a voice note, a conversation or anything. But turning the form from thoughts in one’s head to a different form is probably the first time one gets things out in the real world. It is when you can even put an order to it. It’s when things take form and shape. I nudge you to find such spaces for yourself if you haven’t found one yet.
Your social accounts could be such a space.
Relationships are built on shared context. It happens over time. Without expression, you lose context.
Things die a natural death most times and relationships do too.
But not having the tools as the reason seems like a darn shitty one.
Experiments are a good way to do/build/create anything. Be a mad scientist with your day to day :D
I think of most things I do or can do as experiments these days. Here are some I could think of for you here. In increasing order of difficulty
Redo your close friends green circle and attempt to share more personal stuff on there.
Remove people off your handle and see if it helps.
This is time-consuming but worth it. Be brutal when you do this for the best results.Play around with the form. What about voice, long text and video?
Do unfollow me if you don’t want to read this stuff. I’mma count that as a big W for this particular post xD
There are other experiments too like creating a small private account. I tried this but that account never felt like mine. Some folks I know have multiple online personalities across different social handles. As much as swoon over the takes from their other personalities, I do feel a bit alarmed. Why don’t they be all the things they really are, everywhere?
What would a self expression first approach to social apps look like? What are some tools that helped/enabled you express and in what forms? Do comment.
Why am I in this rabbit hole? I like tools and social. But it’s hard to be yourself and social apps only made it worse but these are just early attempts and there could be better ones. This article about social apps made me ask some questions in a good way and look at the space with some optimism.
And I wanted to practice writing so here I am.
I sometimes wonder if my observations are right and if I’m even making sense. Tell me if they don’t.
Note: I have nothing against photos. It’s just the quanta of information in it and how most social picked it as default because it’s easy. Also, writing is really hard. Some artists do capture so much in their frames which I very much admire. A frame is a relative bit. I feel everyone’s frame is interesting and they see each see something theirs. It would really be fun to see what sits in it and outside of it. And post pictures you’ve taken that make sense to you :)
I’m going to write(hopefully) more about different aspects of social apps like consumption, chat/comms systems, and strip social apps. Occasionally about some life stuff too. Do subscribe if you want. Be sure before you do :)
And do comment if you have any time to add to this topic. Your inputs, polls to put or anything. Thanks!
I have a question for the next piece on consumption and subscription - if you spend a good amount of time on these apps, do you remember at least 5 posts from yesterday? memes count too.
Byeeee.
Putting the list of questions from the above:
What does self expression mean to you online?
What really separates a post from a story?
How can social apps enable self expression and let us be just us?
Tbh any self-expression that takes place in front of people feels performative. I either get the urge to monetize, or prove that I'm having more fun, or basically establish some kind of positive effect from that expression. I've sadly noticed that it bleeds into my personal private writing as well, hence stopped sharing. I even deleted my instagram account permanently for a fresh start.
Great post. Thank you for writing.