Thank you for sharing Liz, and yes, agree with you about Twitter. We have used it a lot in the past, but it has become a really unhealthy place for us. We much prefer communicating with a smaller group of people at a much slower pace. There is no space for real conversations or discussions on Twitter.

These are really good points. Especially so about how it can sometimes be difficult to read the emotion in someone's conversation. I often worry that I will come across as blunt or patronising when I talk online. Emoji's can definitely help. The ability to take time with your replies too is so important. That's what we hope to achieve with this forum. It's nice to be able to just pop on when we are ready to talk rather than worrying about missing out on a fast-paced conversation.

Hi Andrew,

I think that if we could develop a digital world solely with the things you mention here it would largely be a better place to be. I would definitely advocate for more of theme / topic based social media rather than that concerned with individualism.

The problem is that social media platforms are not designed in this way. They are centred around status-based user generated content, which pulls the profit for them. So this is what creates a culture of attention orientated behaviour because that feeling of reward and 'nice' attention can be addictive, and whether people admit or not, many want to be seen and will go to great lengths to do so. Even if that means oversharing or putting themselves in vulnerable situations.

The feeling of pressure comes from this type of culture arising from an attention economy. Even when you don't want attention personally, it is such a fast paced environment with so much attention orientated content it can become overwhelming.. which in itself is a lot of pressure. I think one of the largest problems to tackle is allowing people to admit they feel consumed with it all, there is no shame in wanting the attention or the 'likes'. The shame comes from the economic system of these platforms and how they are designed to make people feel this way.

I know that me and J both feel a lot healthier away from it :)

That's fair enough I can understand that. I think this culture of 'engagement' is a relatively new concept. It's all related to monetisation of social media, mainly through advertising. That is purely driven by subscribers/followers/popularity. People see it as an easy way to make money. All they have to do is achieve a threshold of subscribers and the ad money comes rolling in. You don't even need to have particularly good content, as long as people will subscribe to it.

It didn't used to be this way. I go right back to the era of Usenet newsgroups. Maybe you don't remember those? It existed purely as a means of information exchange and online social engagement on the Internet. The world wide web didn't even exist back then! Nobody was out to make a pile of cash.

This is why I tend to like Internet forums. They exist as a means of discussion and sharing of ideas. Ok they can have different problems, but it's more of a controlled and safe environment.

Exactly. I know a little about Usenet. I read a bit about BBS when I started researching the attention economy a few years ago.

It’s not the individuals at fault for this though. These new cultures we are seeing (influencers etc.) are being driven by the platforms and digital capitalism. That’s why like you, I also prefer forums for discussion. Because on social, there isn’t space to, and in my opinion it’s just a really unhealthy and at times dangerous culture. Even people who are not fully fledged influencers can become consumed by it all. That's why we need digital spaces that come away from status based visibility, towards more open and slower paced discussions.

In my humble, anyway.. :)