They were valuable at a certain point in time. In 2006 facebook was useful. In 2009 I found reddit useful. In 2013 I found twitter useful. And then eventually that value evaporated not only with algorithms but then the huge surge of people and what that meant for these platforms. The algorithms didn't help cut the noise in some ways it just made it work. Every platform became toxic. There is nothing wrong with social networks, but we don't need to connect EVERYONE. Smaller groups, social circles of 100 or less is ideal. Even then thats too big and is only useful where you're able to moderate it. Once things get too big it decays.
So no, don't regret it, maybe some of the twitter use. Yelling into the abyss is not healthy. But that's not to say we don't need private social networks. Not public. Private. Public social networks are going to need 10 years to reset.
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They were valuable at a certain point in time. In 2006 facebook was useful. In 2009 I found reddit useful. In 2013 I found twitter useful. And then eventually that value evaporated not only with algorithms but then the huge surge of people and what that meant for these platforms. The algorithms didn't help cut the noise in some ways it just made it work. Every platform became toxic. There is nothing wrong with social networks, but we don't need to connect EVERYONE. Smaller groups, social circles of 100 or less is ideal. Even then thats too big and is only useful where you're able to moderate it. Once things get too big it decays.
So no, don't regret it, maybe some of the twitter use. Yelling into the abyss is not healthy. But that's not to say we don't need private social networks. Not public. Private. Public social networks are going to need 10 years to reset.