Social Media Platforms Are All the Same
And many of us are trying to quit them
What do you do when you’re bored? For years the answer was probably unique to you: you pursued your own hobby or your own uniquely bad habit. But chances are, in 2021, there is a fairly standard answer to this question: you open an app on your computer or phone that contains an algorithmically sorted list of user-generated content, and you scroll through it. You may not even like doing so very much. But still, in times of boredom, your scrolling thumb may start twitching. Social media has become the generic bad habit we are all trying to kick.
There are subtle differences between these infinite lists. They might be short-form videos (Tik-Tok), long-form videos (YouTube), images (Instagram), short text (Twitter), ostensibly from your social circle (Facebook), from people at work (LinkedIn), from strangers on the internet (Reddit), or from people who have red baseball caps (Parler). But in each case, the content and interaction patterns are largely the same. You choose people or subjects to follow. Some people will follow you. A central list gathers together all of the posts everyone has made with the option to “like” each one. And underneath sits a section for you to add your thoughts (and to have arguments).
