Alright hear me out: the thesis of my argument is that early facebook (before Zuck made it completely unusable) was a legitimately good tool for connecting with people. But there were always individualistic elements to it. However subsequent social media that became popular, eg Instagram, Twitter, vine, tiktok, emphasized these individualistic aspects while downplaying the social aspects.

Okay so early facebook. You’re writing on each others’ walls. You’re forming groups with your peers, whether for important projects or just because you’re all friends. Essentially you’re interacting as equals on facebook. Yes you can still post on your own wall and have people comment. Obviously you’re customizing your own profile as much as Facebook allows. And there’s of course pictures. And Facebook had pages for companies and stuff, but it was possible to use Facebook as a social tool.

Now move to Instagram, or Twitter, or facebook. There’s really only one relation you can have, even with your friends, and that’s poster to commenter. This leads to a greater emphasis on curation of profiles, and becomes a perfect tool for brands and politicians. Essentially having a profile on these sites is like being given a megaphone to shout into the void, while early Facebook was closer being in the town square. Just look at the terminology - on Facebook you “friend,” on these other sites you “follow.”

I want to make clear I don’t think early Facebook was perfect social media, I just believe the sites that became popular after emphasized the worst aspects of social media, essentially removing the “social” part.

I’m not too familiar with older social media. I assume MySpace was similar to what I’m saying about facebook, just with more customization, but MySpace is a little before my time (it’s actually not, but I was just a really slow adopter so I mostly missed the MySpace thing).

There are some newer social media I like. I’m especially thinking of discord. But discord is essentially a gigantic group chat so I’m not counting it.

Anyway tell me why I’m wrong because last time I posted this no one really pushed back. I feel like this should be a pretty wrong take because it’s mostly based on vibes and nostalgia but I can’t think of any reason why it’s wrong. Please be as brutal with your criticism as possible.