What Does the Future of Social Media Look Like?
How Web3 Can Resolve the Problems With Modern Social Media
Social media is a cornerstone in every one of our lives. Research shows it connects us to friends, family, and the greater community while playing a key role in our sense of belonging at every age. Yet key social media platforms like Twitter, TikTok, and Facebook continue to test our trust.
The Cambridge Analytica scandal during the 2016 elections put Facebook and CEO Mark Zuckerberg in the hot seat, while whistleblower Frances Haugen sparked a new backlash against how the company handles our data. A pivot to their own metaverse didn’t help, because the Horizon metaverse is detached from reality and could prove to be the biggest flop in tech.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk now wholly owns Twitter, making almost daily changes to Twitter Blue and pushing employees to sleep in the office. The new social media exec quickly reinstated contentious banned accounts, like Donald Trump, while high-profile celebrity users like Kanye West and Kathy Griffin got suspended.
And both the Biden and Trump administrations worked to ban TikTok as the UK and European Union have reservations about both American and Chinese social media networks. It’s becoming increasingly clear that social media is vital for communications at a global level, and governments are wary of their data falling into foreign hands.
With our largest public squares mired in distrust, what does the future hold for social media?
1. Mainstream Decentralization
Social media is the modern equivalent of house phones in the 20th century, allowing us to engage and communicate with each other. Like Ma Bell, Meta spent much of 2022 facing antitrust regulation and the possibility of a break up, forcing it to reexamine ownership of platforms like Giphy and Tuned. However, this may not be a bad thing.
As of September 2022, Facebook controls 64.32% of the US social media market, with Pinterest (12.08%) and Twitter (10.87%) in a distant second and third. TikTok is crushing it on a global scale, growing to 1.6 billion monthly active users (MAUs). Many analysts point to the growth of TikTok as a main factor in Facebook’s revenue decline, but the truth may be more nuanced than that.
Every social media platform provides a different experience and fosters distinct audiences and culture. It’s transparent nobody wants a Facebook metaverse, and the popularity of platforms like Discord, Reddit, Mastodon, and BeReal offer unique environments seemingly uninterested in competing with the majors. I expect we’ll see more social startups increasingly decentralizing communications in Web3.
2. Ending the Cult of Personality
Influencer marketing is a $16.4 billion industry, and it’s clear as day that influencers are the new celebrities. In the late 2010s, Snapchat infamously drew the ire of celebrity influencers Kylie Jenner, MKBHD, Chrissy Teigen, and more after its redesign created a clear dividing line between normal people and celebrities with no way to bridge the gap.
However, all things are cyclical, and the popularity of non-search-indexed social platforms like Discord and Telegram prove a shift is happening away from the world of influencers. Future social media platforms are likely to prioritize subject matter and community over the current cult of personality dominating popular social outlets.
We see Musk already toying with this using Twitter’s verification system. While it’s important to know who is an official public figure or government official, the old system was clearly broken and had been gamified by clout chasers. Here’s hoping he figures it out.
3. Taking Control of Our Data
Privacy is important, and regulations like the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) give us more control over our data. Third-party cookies are among the ways websites like Google and Facebook track our online activity for advertising purposes.
Meta’s $276 million fine over leaked data of over 500 million users makes it clear our data isn’t safe in the hands of corporations. Data collection is an overwhelming part of modern society, and over 60% of Americans don’t believe it’s avoidable. Web3’s tokenization promises to give control back to the users, and I think this trend will continue next year.
It also translates to widestream adoption of encrypted chats, which we’re now seeing with Twitter, Whatsapp, Telegram and Discord. Both business and personal users clearly cherish privacy, and the platforms that provide safe spaces will win large communities.
4. On-Platform Shopping
It’s been consistently proven that we trust the recommendations of our friends and family more than any other source when it comes to buying decisions. Whether it’s your barber, realtor, or doctor, odds are you were swayed by your social circle, so it’s no surprise social platforms like Instagram and Pinterest integrated shopping directly into their UI.
As the recession continues, we’re going to see more social companies push into on-platform shopping. Web3 makes this easier with tokenization inherent in blockchain technology, which could change the paradigm everywhere from the browser level (Brave) to the platform.
Reddit’s crypto integration is so far the shining example of how to do it, with NFTs called digital collectibles, and the lines between on-platform karma and crypto blurred. This bridges the gap between social proof and financial viability, although Reddit could use more shopping features.
As the social economy grows, engagement and value can turn into real purchases to open a new lane for entrepreneurs and small businesses.
Looking Ahead
I’m not clairvoyant, but looking back on the past year, one thing is clear—
Discord and Reddit are closer to the future of social media than Facebook, Horizon, and the metaverse. While cool experiences, mainstream virtual reality is not there yet, and transforming Oculus from a great video game console into an immersive social app misses the point.
The social platforms that succeed in the next generation of the internet don’t necessarily need to rely on blockchain technology. But they do need to make unique and safe spaces for people to share ideas, information, news, jokes, and more.
In fact, this is exactly what Musk is trying to do with Twitter. He’s removing the noise and rolling things back to figure out where the platform went wrong chasing trends over the last decade and forgetting why people love it. I hope he figures it out soon, because I admittedly love vanilla Twitter.
Ultimately, the internet is meant to connect us, and that sense of community is the one thing that will never change as technology continues evolving in Web3.
Lena Grundhoefer is the Founder of ZEITG3IST, a globally-recognized strategy agency. As we provide future-proof marketing for the brands of tomorrow, we help Fortune 500 brands, as well as brands just starting out, break into web3.