Platforms are now mimicking the way we share content on platforms

Will Oremus, writing in his article, The New Era of Social Media Isn’t About Feeds, on OneZero:

New digital media products are focusing on low-volume, high-attention relationships rather than high-volume, low-attention feeds.

Ten years ago, when we saw something interesting, fun or worth-sharing, we shared it on Facebook. From there, our friends, family members, coworkers, former colleagues, and roommates, could all see the post. It felt like centralisation was the way to go, and this way of sharing things was more efficient in terms of volume of people reached and efforts made.

Today, We might share the same kind of content, but instead of doing it on Facebook — if we still use Facebook — we share it on a few WhatsApp groups, maybe a Slack channel, a DM or two, and an iMessage. A certain amount of social media maturity drove us to this “expertise” in who will enjoy our links, videos, and animated gifs the most. This way of sharing stuff feels more intimate, more personal, more targeted, more efficient in terms of impact.

I think this is what companies are looking for nowadays: impact rather than volume. By mimicking how we have learned to behave on social media, these “new digital products” stopped trying to target everyone indifferently (us on Facebook in 2011, trusting the algorithm to work its magic), and aim for more targeted communities, engaged individuals (us on our chat groups, across several apps, showing a good old human intentionality).

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