Social v. interest based networks: A pivot in how we interact
Over the past few years, social media has made a major shift, from being based in people to being based in interests. In many ways, it’s a shift back to its roots — and its implications may be good for us all.
It was 1994 and I was the first and only online community reporter at The Seattle Times. We did not yet have a website.
Instead, we had what was called a bulletin board system. A portion of my job consisted of setting up and moderating Usenet boards, which were topic-based boards akin to reddit. That’s how social networks, or what we referred to as “online communities,” looked in the mid 90’s, about a decade after their conception.
These communities embodied the prediction of one of the Internet’s founders, J.C.R. Licklider, affectionately called “Lick” by his friends and colleagues. Lick was a psychologist and computer scientist, and co-author (along with Robert Taylor) of “The Computer as a Communication Device,” published in 1968. Here’s what Lick said about the future:
“Life will be happier for the on-line individual because the people with whom one interacts most strongly will be selected more by commonality of interests and goals than by accidents of proximity.”
About a year after Facebook was opened to members beyond college students, an MTV study confirmed Licklider’s theory. “Half of those young people polled say the Internet alone helped them feel happier,” the study reported.
What followed was the rise of Facebook and other giants such as Instagram and Twitter — as well as a change in the term “online community” to “social networks.”
As Facebook gained in popularity, it changed not only the name of what we called these types of experiences, but it also changed the dynamics of how we interacted with them. While previously people gathered around a topic, now they gathered around a person.
Yes, Facebook has groups, and yes Instagram has hashtags, but ultimately these social networks are about people we know. And that’s a wonderful thing. Personally, I am connected via Facebook to my high school French teacher, friends from middle school, and many of my dozens of cousins — most of whom I would no longer be in touch with were it not for social networks. Just knowing that brings me great joy.
But in being about people we know, these environments also made it easier to compare ourselves to others. It made things personal, and not always in a positive way. These social networks also moved us away from talking about the things we love with other people who also love those same things. Yes there is a whole lot of good in social networks, but these flaws present challenges, some of which can be quite negative.
However, today, when the fastest growing network with the highest engagement rate is TikTok, we are witnessing a pivot back to interest based “online communities” that emphasize authenticity over polish. Yes, people still seek likes and shares — but those happen not out of obligation or popularity, but out of a true appreciation of the conversation.
We’re seeing this dynamic force traditional social networks to change in ways that are amplifying authenticity as well. For example, BeReal centers the user experience on real moments in time, while connecting users with people they know.
According to Dunbar’s Number, our brains can only mange five close friendships and no more than 150 stable relationships. (Interestingly, it seems that the trick to a great BeReal experience is having a small and curated friend list.)
Perhaps where our use of social networks stumbled was in our collection of hundreds if not thousands of “friends.” We even created a term, “Facebook friend,” which denotes an acquaintance but not a true friendship. According to Urban Dictionary, a Facebook friends is just a way to build fake popularity.
On the other hand, interest-based platforms such as TikTok and reddit do not rely on maintaining relationships, rather, they attract people by what they are truly interested in. Perhaps this allows us to be our unedited, messy selves in a different way than Facebook did. And that just may translate to truer connections, and more happier individuals.
