The debate on the “end of social networks” was triggered above all by an event: the contextual crisis faced by Facebook and Twitter. The difficulties of the two platforms that best represent the social revolution actually make us think that an era is closing forever. However, a careful look reveals a more multifaceted situation than expected.
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First of all, the Twitter and Facebook crises have very different causes. The first – which has always had difficulties in terms of budgets and whose users, around 300 million, are small compared to its main competitors – is grappling with the chaos caused by the arrival of Elon Musk, with the alleged flight of users and above all with the nervousness of advertisers caused precisely by Musk’s new policies, under the banner of a fundamentally Trumpian-style “free speech”.
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Facebook has very different problems: it is in fact a social network that still generates enormous profits (albeit declining), but which loses users and above all is no longer able to attract a young audience. Simply put, Facebook is a social network that is aging badly. Even Instagram is experiencing some unexpected slowdown and in the meantime Meta (the company that owns both) is instead concentrating all its energies (including economic ones) on a vision of the metaverse that risks turning out to be a huge gamble.
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At the same time, we are witnessing the unstoppable growth of TikTok: a social network that actually has very little “social”. In fact, it is estimated that two thirds of TikTok users have never published anything on the platform owned by the Chinese ByteDance, limiting themselves to passively consuming the contents produced by professional or aspiring creators. In fact, TikTok is more reminiscent of a sort of mini-television than a traditional social network.
TikTok’s success doesn’t mean that internet users no longer want to share content. Increasingly, however, this sharing takes place on smaller and more intimate platforms: “If social media, in the last fifteen years or so, has focused on spreading your message to as many people as possible, today we are moving towards a future in where we are interested in reaching a small group of people with whom we share interests, values or some other affinity,” wrote Caroline Sinders on Slate. “Posting publicly on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram is pretty much like using a bullhorn to shout at a large faceless crowd. A Discord server (that is a channel where we gather based on interests, ed) or a WhatsApp group is instead more similar to going to a friend’s party: maybe we don’t know everyone, but it’s easier to get an idea of who is participating and who we can converse with.”
This new form of social network has also been called a “digital bonfire”, to convey the idea of a more intimate place where content circulates within a cohesive group, rather than being exposed to a huge and incredibly diverse audience . It’s a new, more private and freer way to share material with friends and like-minded people, which has started to spread thanks to WhatsApp groups or Telegram channels. Over time, this form was then further developed through newly developed software, such as the aforementioned Discord or the smaller Mastodon (open source platform in which each “server” is self-managed by whoever founded it, but is connected with others present).
“Mastodon, WhatsApp, Discord, Twitch or even Facebook groups offer mixed spaces that exist between the public and the private,” Slate continues. “Today people want to have more control over their digital lives. While influencers and other users alike may still want as many likes and shares as possible, most people today seem to view the widespread dissemination of their content as more of a risk than an opportunity.”
“After years of building carefully curated online identities and racking up contacts, younger social network users feel the need to be themselves and make real friends online based on shared interests,” writes Harvard Business. Review.
Consequently, as highlighted by TikTok (but in this respect Twitter was a true pioneer), the use of classic social networks will inevitably become more professional. To publish the contents will therefore be more and more public figures, who use these tools to spread their voice or the material they create as much as possible. Other users will tend to follow Instagram, Twitter and TikTok more and more passively, instead transferring their activity to smaller social networks, where there is a greater feeling of intimacy, independence and security.