For several years now I’ve been wondering what will replace Facebook.
I’ve been looking for an alternative for a few years now and I’m also quite used the idea that social networks change every so often, usually every 6-7 years. As far as social media goes, I’ve tried and created content for just about everything including Blogger, HotOrNot, Tumblr, Periscope, Reddit, YouTube, Linkedin, Snapchat, Twitter, Medium, Findery, Pinterest, Instagram, about.me, Vine, Blab, Foursquare, Yelp, Quora, Etsy, Ebay, Teachable, well you get the idea. It’s fairly obvious that I'm really passionate about online communication, content creation and sharing information.
I’ll basically try anything new that comes along and I’m always on the lookout for some new creative way to express myself, make a living and connect with others in a virtual manner. In 2002-3 I taught myself HTML and dabbled with creating websites. I built an experimental website called Wrongland that contained hidden treasures in it. It was designed to reward those who dug deep into the site, as only certain pages contained gifts. And every day, the location of the gifts changed. The gifts consisted mostly of plastic sandwiches that were sent via snail mail to the winners in a brown paper sack.
Not many people even found the gifts because not many people could find my website. But it was fun and I liked to see how something real could materialize from the virtual world. After building a few websites for myself and others, I noticed that I liked to learn how to build them, but I didn’t enjoy building them to make money. I seemed to enjoy the creating aspect more than anything else. Building websites soon lost its shiny new feel and then I found the social network Friendster which I joined right away. Myspace came soon after that, and I quickly jumped onto that, abandoning Friendster. Due to social pressure, I joined Facebook in 2008, even though I remember liking Myspace more at the time. I’ve been on Facebook ever since, but I began losing interest in it around 2013.
In 2013-2014 I noticed the thrill of sharing personal stuff with friends and family on Facebook was losing its luster.
And added to that, something in me changed the day my father, who is 83 years old, came down the stairs and said,
“I woke up and saw my Facebook memories and couldn’t believe it. I wonder what my memories will be tomorrow?”
From that day on, my father continually refers to the algorithmically-induced Facebook memory retrieval system as “My Memories”. I’m not sure why this particular Facebook feature creeps me out so much, but I think it’s truly disturbing how an algorithm can have such a powerful effect on our emotions and control how we feel about our past and life itself. This prompted me to think more critically about Facebook and its effect on human beings.
I increasingly felt that something was missing from my Facebook experience and indeed, I was not alone. I am not saying that Facebook will suffer the same fate as Myspace but I think it could definitely lose its footing in the coming years. Why do I think this? If I have successfully gotten over my Facebook addiction, this means that others have too, or will do the same in the future.
Facebook doesn’t solve my problems anymore. For starters, it doesn’t provide me with any income and as an independent creator/writer/artist, I generally find myself having to pay Facebook to promote my posts to my own followers. Facebook’s algorithms changed in their favor, not mine. Also, I am more and more bothered by the fact that my artistic content is generating revenue for Facebook, not for me. At the core, I do not feel that I have control over my own social network and I also feel exploited to some degree.
Additionally, all my relatives are now on Facebook, and the whole experience feels stifling to my creativity. It feels too big, too impersonal and too big brother-ish. I’m ready for new options.
Luckily, there are many new, disruptive and exciting social media platforms emerging. The energy that is brewing just under the surface of the old platforms is stirring up memories of the early days of the internet when Napster was alive, YouTube was just starting and Myspace was still a thing.
So, what are these new social platforms and how are they different from Facebook?
While the emerging social media platforms are all different from each other, they share some core similarities. These similarities are in the basic way they function as well as the new technology they use. All of these new platforms are based on decentralized power and most use blockchain technology.
When you look at history, if many diverse groups of people are all working on the same kind of technology and systems separately, then you know that this technology/system will come to pass eventually.
Right now there are approximately five major groups building out the next generation of social media. There may be more that I’m unaware of.
These five groups have largely abandoned the hierarchical system that defines most corporate structures.
The corporate structure is defined by the top dogs getting most of the spoils from the bottom-dwelling people. The corporate system is an extractive and exploitive one, with the CEO at the top of the food chain, and the workers having little to no intrinsic value besides what they can produce for the ones who manage them. Autonomy is not rewarded or considered a desirable trait and generally speaking, those who are autonomous or who do not go along with the established system of power are routinely fired. What’s left in a corporation is a large group of sheep who have exchanged their free will and critical thinking abilities for a set amount of money each month.
These new social media platforms reject this hierarchical system. Not all of these new platforms are perfect, though, and some retain remnants of centralized control. All of them have been inspired by the success of the digital currency, Bitcoin. Bitcoin has been successfully running without a CEO since its inception. Satoshi Nakamoto wrote the Bitcoin white paper, creating the concept initially, but then vanished into obscurity after it was implemented. His/her/their identity is still unknown. Gavin Andresen is currently the Chief Scientist for the Bitcoin Foundation.
Blockchain is Bitcoin's killer technology.
Bitcoin’s killer technology is called blockchain, and it’s the central technological advancement that virtually all the new social media sites are developing. Blockchain technology is currently revolutionizing the worlds of finance, government, banking and now social media. The blockchain allows transactions to be processed in a tamper-proof, transparent manner and these transactions are carried out by computer miners who live all over the globe.
So, that should lay the foundation for what I am about to cover next: emerging next-gen social media sites. Some you can join today, others are on the verge of being released and still others will not be released until the end of this year or the beginning of 2017. I do not recommend that anyone invest any money into these platforms. I do recommend, however, investing time in these emerging networks. Turn your existing Facebook or Reddit addiction into a new social media adventure where you can get many more of your needs met while you’re meeting brand-new people from all over the world. It’s the Wild West of social media again! Let’s go!
Akasha http://akasha.world/
Akasha stands for “Advanced Knowledge Architecture for Social Human Advocacy." Akasha is a decentralized social media platform built on the Ethereum network and the Inter-Planetary File System. Akasha is a decentralized social media platform that rewards its content creators with Ethereum’s native digital currency, ETH. If Ethereum is new to you, here’s a definition:
“Ethereum is a public blockchain-based distributed computing platform, featuring smart contract functionality. It provides a decentralized virtual machine, the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), that can execute peer-to-peer contracts using a cryptocurrency called ether.” -wikipedia
From the Akasha website:
"You can publish, share and vote for entries, similar to Medium and other modern publishing platforms, with the difference that your content is actually published over a decentralized network rather than on our servers. Moreover, the votes are bundled with ETH micro transactions so if your content is good you’ll make ETH from it – in a way, mining with your mind.”
Akasha is set to release its Beta version at the end of 2016. Akasha is led by Mihai Alisie, the co-founder of Ethereum.
Diaspora https://diasporafoundation.org/
Diaspora is a user-owned, nonprofit distributed social network that is kept free of corporate take-overs. It is different from the four other networks in that it doesn’t have a monetary system baked in. Users retain rights to their own content and third parties are not allowed access to the content on Diaspora. The network is made up of nodes and makes use of Diaspora’s software. Users can decide whether their content will be “public” or “limited.” In this way, users have control over who sees different kinds of their content. Diaspora was founded in 2010 and as of March 2014, there are 1 million Diaspora accounts. Founders: Ilya Zhitomirskiy, Dan Grippi, Max Salzberg, and Raphael Sofaer.
Steemit https://steemit.com/
Steemit is a disruptive blockchain-based social media site that focuses on blogging. This is a network you can join today. Steemit pays you in digital currency to create original content. It’s still in Beta, but it’s an amazing opportunity to learn about the blockchain. It has the feel of Medium mixed with Reddit and it values original, long-form content over short posts. Many of its core users are experts in the digital currency space. Digital currency is more commonly referred to as cryptocurrency. Steemit is not a get rich quick kind of place, but rather a place where people are working towards building and developing a functional new system. Steemit has a built-in reputation system and a weighted voting system that is based on a user’s Steem Power. Steemit is a website application that is built upon a transparent, decentralized blockchain. Steemit.com contains both centralized and decentralized power structures. Steem is the digital currency that fuels the ecosystem, and Steemit.com can be thought of as one branch of a big tree known as Steem. The digital currency that fuels Steemit has three kinds in it: Steem, Steem Power and Steem Dollars. Steem and Steem Dollars can be publicly traded on cryptocurrency marketplaces like Bittrex and Poloniex. The founders are Daniel Larimer and Ned Scott.
Synereo https://www.synereo.com/
A blockchain-based social media site that will release its alpha version soon and has been in development for two years. Synereo is purely decentralized in that its social network is peer-to-peer with no central authority acting as a liason. Synereo also uses invitation protocol to keep your personal network under your control. Synereo has its own digital currency called AMPs which can be traded on digital currency marketplaces. Synereo has been built using the attention economy model and also makes use of a reputation system. When content creators publish something on Synereo, they can add AMPs to make it travel and reach people outside their network. Also, people who engage with content that is ‘AMPed’ can gain a portion of those AMPs.
The Synereo team has been developing the technology behind its network for over five years. It has really big goals for the future that go well beyond social media. It is developing technology for smart contracts and also distributed storage. It has been dubbed the “Facebook killer”. The founders are Dor Konforty and Greg Meredith.
Yours https://www.yours.network/
The Yours network is building a social media site using the existing Bitcoin blockchain. Content creators of all kinds will be able to receive Bitcoin micropayments from the people who feel passionate about their work. Yours appears to have a reputation system and also a way for people to earn Bitcoin from curating content. It’s still in development and its strongest aspect is that it can build upon an established community of Bitcoin users.
“Alongside payments, user identities will also be decentralized. “We plan to utilize a form of decentralized ID like BlockStack,” McKie said, although they haven’t settled on which framework they’ll be using yet. The developer was adamant, however, about users being in full control over their own data. “Yours accounts will only have as much information as you give,” he explained. “You have full control of your private keys in your Yours wallet.”-http://bravenewcoin.com/news/bitcoin-based-content-platform-yours-attracts-overwhelming-interest-from-investors/
The founder is Ryan X Charles who was previously employed as the Cryptocurrency Engineer at Reddit.
As more decentralized social media sites emerge, the competition between them will of course become fierce. However, I believe there is room for all of them.
I also believe that they can all learn from each other to become more efficient. If one technology outperforms the rest, it should be adopted by the others. Similarly, if one kind of structure turns out to be more appealing to social media users, that structure should be adopted. There is no need to hang onto bad designs. The only reason egos exist is so they may be destroyed.
My outlook may be optimistic, but I am a firm believer in creating bridges between factions so that optimal positive changes occur during the emerging transition to decentralized systems. It’s crucial that existing Facebook addicts find and join new decentralized social networks that meet their needs instead of exploit them. The future looks bright and it looks increasingly decentralized.
Let’s do this.
photocollage made by me using an image from unsplash
I can well relate to the issue of your family members on Facebook messing with your creativity. Over the last 10 years my wife and I have shifted from being professional Christian ministers to being followers of a Luciferian, Neo-Pagan path. Seriously. With the bulk of the family still being Christian, it does throw a wet blanket on my creativity on certain social networks. I like being in a new place where I can just chill and be myself.
"being professional Christian ministers to being followers of a Luciferian, Neo-Pagan path" This is hilarious! I love reality especially when it sounds made up. Did you really switch? I guess for me, I switched from being atheist to worshipping the sun.......Native American philosophy makes so much freaking sense to me....
What a great personal tidbit about you!
I consider myself 'faithful' but if people ask me what religion I tell them "a little bit of all of them." My Aspie brain doesn't really understand worship, but I feel connected. I speak to the moon and seek out the stars. I cried when a neighbor cut down their BEAUTIFUL healthy oak tree because they didn't want the leaves to fall in their pool. I feel energized when I play in the dirt. I also 'walk the talk' because karma is my good friend and I'm trying to keep it that way. ;)
That's pretty much the way my wife was when I had my awakening. Very nature based. It's not allowed to call our cats and dogs animals, they are considered people. She talks to the Elements, and I swear they answer her. :-)
I couldn't agree more! When we were doing demo and construction, half of my house was open. I live in Florida and we've got all kinds of critters. I basically gave them all a talk and my brother was AMAZED that we weren't overrun with anoles and snakes because I respect them when I'm in their house. :) Cockroaches and wolfspiders though... excuse the language but they're assholes so they get smooshed.
Going from Atheist to being a Native American Sun worshiper...I can see that! We all have growth areas that take us into unexpected places. As for me, yes I am serious. After 30 years of alcoholism, once I got into recovery i found I had to make some major changes. Fundamentalist Christianity no longer worked for me, so I choose the path of Luciferianism which stresses Enlightenment, personal growth, and self improvement by taking responsibility for correcting your past misdeeds. Most assume Luciferianism deals with devil worship. It does not. Lucifer is the Arch-type of the Light Bearer...the symbol of Enlightenment. Even so...when former church members bump into me....it can be rather awkward. :-)
@Stellabelle Hey! I came across your page as I was seeking a way to block some hostile males over my last post about feminism.
I hope Steemit comes up with a form to avoid this type of hatefilled commentary or at least an option to ban it. Anyway love your post!
Check out @steemitblog, go to their last post and upvote my comment (if you want to which I think you will).
We're taking earnest down 😊
you flagged my post. you are not the victim. al I did was say remove the flags on my post or I make a post about how you are trying to censor me. im taking a screen shot to add to the post I am making if ou don't remove the flagg.
The devs know about this issue and have told me they are working on a solution. I don't know what the time frame for such a solution is though. You can always report abuse in the steemitabuse-classic channel in the rocket chat channel. Then, have the people who work in there flag your trolls.Exactly. Dana-edwards made a post detailing how Steemit could create a filter to disconnect people from hate-filled trolls....https://steemit.com/steem/@dana-edwards/an-approach-for-dealing-with-harassment-on-steemit-selective-channels
@stellabelle - thank you for all the information here! Like you, I sign up for everything and there are a few here that I have not seen or heard of...and away I'll go to see how they fit or enhance my life.
I haven't really been active on FB since I've really begun to focus my attention on creating content for Steemit and growing my tribe here. I should make a point of checking FB every day though, otherwise I have no idea if I'm missing someone's birthday. Yup, it's become my calendar now.
It sounds like you and I have a lot in common too! I'm also an independent creator and writer. I hesitate to call myself an artist, but I was also a professional wedding/funeral singer and soloist - so maybe I do fall under the artist banner? I also learned HTML on my own (back in the 90s), cutting my teeth on Geocities.
I love social media, especially community-oriented ones. Remember iVillage? I had earned my way to recognition there and eventually became a paid Community Moderator. The passion I felt back then for iVillage is how I feel about Steemit. While I get it's tied to cryptocurrency, I think of it as empowering PEOPLE.
So now that you've shared new links to sites unknown to me...I am now compelled to visit them. There is a good chance that I'll sign up, sniff the atmosphere and reject it quickly before too much time and energy are given. But I have to admit that I'm excited to hear that Synereo will be coming out of beta soon. It gives me hope that Steemit will too.
I built an experimental website called Wrongland that contained hidden treasures in it. It was designed to reward those who dug deep into the site
God what a great feature that is. Something like that would be pretty fun to have assigned to posts here!
I am looking forward to seeing what next options come out. I am hopeful for steemit, obviously, I just worry it feels more Engineer and not enough User influenced. Thanks for this.
Thanks! I still do lots of giveaways, and one never knows what will happen next.......something is cooking though.
Great post. I was waiting for this in the light of the Synereo conference. You have handled it eloquently!!
I have asked myself the same question - who will replace facebook as the next social media giant? They have definitely lost popularity due to everyone being on there now (you don't really want to share everything with your grandma and your uncle do you...). But also, facebook instagram and whatsapp are in a crisis because of the privacy settings. They are all one group as we know, and many users are scared and don't know what will happen to their date.
Decentralized cryptocurrency is definitely the way to go, thanks for this list there were a few on here I didn't know yet. It will be interesting to see how these develop in the future !
exactly. The momentum is there for sure........
I actually talked to Ryan Charles on the phone (i guess htey did phone interviews with some people who signed up for info) a few days ago.. Yours has some real potential for synergy with steemit, IMO
Great summary.
I think we all already know about Steemit since we are here! I find it interesting that there are so many already.
I knew about Akasha because of my previous involvement in ethereum and Synereo because I was one of the first day ICO investors in it. I only heard about Yours on here a few weeks ago but didn't know much beyond that. I've never heard of Diaspora.
I suspect there will be even more trying to launch in the near future as the cryptocurrency world seems to go through "crazes" where everybody tries to jump on something that might look remotely successful.
In the end only a small number will survive and I suspect they will be the ones who bring something new with their own specific niche - similar to how we have Facebook, Twitter and Reddit now.
They all have some social aspects but their priorities and how they work are very different.
I only learned of Diaspora today although I had run across them on here a little. I watched an interview with Craig Wright, the man who claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto, and I became fascinated by his story. I would admit that the one person who really opened up my eyes to decentralization is Nikola Tesla. He has correctly predicted much of our world, and the remaining part that has not yet come to pass is decentralization of energy/resources, everything. I see it as an eventuality, a known movement whose time has come. It may take a bit of time for the world to catch on because we're all enshrouded in a cloud of dependency, hierarchy and disempowered feelings. Our current system has conditioned us not to value our thoughts, ideas and energies. We have all been conditioned to believe we are worthless, or that our worth can only be measured by someone else. This is the thing that is stopping us from advancing forward, I think. We can be given the greatest technological advancements, all for free, and yet, if our thinking is not sufficiently advanced, we will squander it. We will devolve into a rancid pile of our own rotting egos. We will miss our chance to push things forward.
That is because of the materialist paradigm. I think it will eventually end though as it ultimately leads to unhappiness no matter how much stuff you have. People in general will have to evolve beyond it or it will lead to our extinction because there aren't enough resources to sustain it.
The planet is already in such a mess. Tesla was a great man easily the equal of Einstein and would have been appreciated more were it not for the jealousy of Edison (sorry I know I keep banging on about it but it is crazy that progress was held up over someone's personal feelings). I think he understood this point about materialism too which is why he didn't pursue business with the vigour that Edison did.
I actually feel lucky in some ways that my health problems derailed my career and made me come to this realisation that I was stuck in that same materialist mindset. Yes I had a lot of money and I could potentially have made a fortune through some psychopharmacology work that I had been offered but I was falling apart inside.
I had stopped doing all the things that made me happy and that brought value to my life because I believed in this skewed model of success that only values material things and career progress. I think life is about much more than that.
The material stuff beyond a certain point (like enough food to eat, shelter, good health etc) can actually get in the way of living life and making progress as a human being.
Facebook will probably be around in 5 years but I think Twitter is in a death spiral. It could be a coincidence but since Twitter started censoring users their share price is tanking.
Facebook is experiencing a sharp decline in users posting personal status updates. No one ever thought that Myspace would die off and so quickly. But Facebook is way bigger and more powerful, true. "people are posting far fewer of their own personal updates — stories about their thoughts, their life, what they're up to — to Facebook. The report says this type of post fell 21 percent during that same timeframe. The decline has continued into this year, though at a somewhat slower pace of 15 percent year over year," -http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/7/11387604/facebook-personal-sharing-decline-report
Wow, that's a sharp decline.
I dont think there is enough room for them all. One of them most likely going to conquer the rest.
But just look at how many are in existence today: Facebook, Reddit, Linkedin, Twitter, Medium.......
I googled "facebook killer", "the facebook killer" and "facebook killer app" but no results. I opened an incognito window to re-search without google giving me top results based on my history, nothing again.
When I googled "facebook killer crypto" or "facebook killer altcoin" I did see a lot of mentions of Steemit though.
if invitation protocols were implemented it would be closer to Facebook/Medium. However, in the current iteration, it is more like Reddit. It definitely could replace Reddit or Medium, as those seem to be the main inspiration from what I can deduce. For me personally, since I use pretty much all existing social networks, Steemit has replaced Medium, Reddit and Quora for me. I occasionally look up stuff on Reddit still, but I hardly ever visit Medium or Quora anymore. This is a remarkable feat since I was literally hooked on Medium for some time. I used to read articles on Medium like 3 or 4 hours per day on average. I have not posted on Medium since I first found Steemit on June 8. That's significant.
from http://bitcoinist.net/social-networks-decentralization-synereo-case/ :
"Synereo vision is to improve the model already presented by other social networks, but instead of being managed and regulated by a central authority, it uses blockchain technology to ensure a decentralized level of security and privacy fit for the next generation of social networking. Having this as the main approach, Synereo may well be the Facebook killer."
My google must be off. :)
Being a "facebook killer" invention is something many have been striving for, even before the block-chain integration. Gives it kind of a "meh" hype to it, since you hear it a lot.
I think they can co-exist since not many power Facebook users are on Reddit and not many hardcore Redditors are on Facebook.....
Well, yeah, until it gets going, we cannot really know. But its general structure resembles facebook more than reddit. Users have more control over who sees their content. This is pretty identical to the way facebook operates.
The below quote by far and large was the most motivational thing I have heard about this space from anyone:
"When you look at history, if many diverse groups of people are all working on the same kind of technology and systems separately, then you know that this technology/system will come to pass eventually"
It also makes me want to get involved in a couple of the others so not to have all my eggs in one basket!
This is a brilliant article. Thanks for sharing. Happy to upvote and pleased to share this on Twitter✔ for my followers to read. Following and looking forward to reading more. Cheers. Stephen
hey, thanks, I appreciate that. I wrote this one as neutrally as I could so that people who are not yet on Steemit can see that it's ok to join and learn about what's coming. Very few mainstream outlets seem to be covering what's happening, so the sooner they learn, the sooner they can transition to a more decentralized form of existing.
Very good insights. Thank you!
Another network that's in an ICO stage is "Decent".
ah, thanks, I didn't know about that one. I guess Alexandria is another.....there are so many it appears
i just found another steemit article that has more of them: https://steemit.com/steemit/@moh-rokib/decentralized-social-networks-comparing-steemit-synereo-decent-alexandria-yours-network-safe-network-zeronet
I remember registering for a diaspora account several years back. I haven't heard about it anything till today. Will probably have to go and check out what is up with it.
Thanks @stellabelle. Great information and personal insights. I am interested to see how this next wave of cryptocurrency + social media infusion, unfolds with all of us being the engine in the middle.
I love the creativity behind Wrongland. That was an interesting strategy to get users to dig deeper within the site.
I learned a lot in this post and appreciate it. I'm curious about how you engage with so many platforms. Do you treat each one as an independent outlet with different content, a different tone, a different voice? Or would you take something like this post and rework it for each platform? Or do you post content everywhere, but only a fraction of it in any one place? Or something else? I'm amazed at folks that handle multiple platforms well.
I've been around a lot of social sites too. Several of them have since shut down (Multiply, Orkut, Tsu...). That's a load of data gone forever. At least with a blockchain there's a chance to preserve the data. I don't think there is any 'one size fits all' site'. They all offer something slightly different. What I'd like to see is open standards that allow different sites to work together so we can get the benefit of all of them. I liked Friendfeed (before Facebook shut it down) as that allowed people to follow my updates from various sites without having to join them all.
There's a lot of innovation in social media, but the problem now is that a few players have the public mindshare and it's hard to get people to consider something new. Why should they use anything other than FB when all their friends are there?
I like that Steemit is open source and the data is open. Perhaps it will evolve to allow for privacy when required, but for now it's a cool blogging platform with a lot of potential.
nice post and share @stellabelle
Steemit is what broke my addiction to Facebook. But I'm finding that I'm not so much addicted to Steemit as I'm motivated creatively. One reason I'm not spending all my time online anymore is because of Steemit's disincentive to vote too much, and that's very liberating!
@stellabelle, do you think a platform paying directly in bitcoin will beat out Steemit?
It all depends on how it's run. Steemit has great potential. It's entirely unknown which platform will be hugely successful.....
My concern with "yours" is a lack of information. I don't believe they have even put out a white paper yet. I had hoped for DECENT before their botched launch last night.
I'm bothered by the lack of info too. They don't sound well-organized at this stage...
Whatever platform that is going to a give better amount of currency to a minnow-like individual like me for posts then that's the one that can beat Steemit and kill Facebook.
You very very very very lonely old hag.
Thanks for this! Great information on what others are doing.