It is heartsickening that this is the result of current social media implementation. As others have mentioned, it is largely caused by this attention economy (as I've heard Tristan Harris of https://www.humanetech.com/ call it) - where the apps most used today are made to be addictive and consume our attention as much as possible.
I have been working on a more intimate, less addictive, social media and messaging application that I hope can be part of a trend of new apps that help solve this problem. I believe one of the features in current apps that makes them so addictive, for teens especially, is the endless stream of content they have access to - they can view hours and hours of videos from celebrities they don't personally know, content creators they have never met, brands, etc. If we can scale back the endless stream of content (which leads to doom-scrolling), that might be one approach to helping limit screen time without sacrificing the meaningful connection to friends and family that social media enables.
I'd be interested to see what you're working on. How would you reduce the amount of content? Would people still be able to find it by search? Or is this more of a Facebook/Whatsapp without the extra bs?
I've been trying to block social media and have finally managed to do it (DoH was a pain in the ass to block). Although I can still access websites on mobile, working on that.
I quit Imgur after years and I don't understand why I was even going there. Now everything looks dumb and uninteresting. Truly like a drug addiction.
Hey icy, the issue you raise about Signal not being decentralized, I think, is a valid one.
You should check out a decentralized messaging and social media app I have been working on - Omnii.
Omnii allows each user to manage their encryption keys, and all data exists in a decentralized manner - only on endpoints (users' phones), and not on a backend.
The fact that you don’t offer a technical description of your application, and the fact that “Twisted Apps LLC“ does not have a credible online presence, does not inspire confidence in your security.
If you click the "Download Omnii Beta" button on the website, it should take you to the Google Play Store listing and allow you to download the Beta version of the app.
One restriction at the moment is that the app is closed to the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and India. If you do not reside in one of the listed countries, shoot me an email with the country you live in and I can see if we can open up the Beta to your country.
I definitely agree with the necessity of having clearly defined and apparent spaces of privacy on social media platforms and this is actually something I am working on developing.
It’s funny they mention that content posted to a public space should possibly be color-coded in red, because this is exactly what we do on our platform. We have three shareability control options: On/Off the platform (public) – labeled in red, On the platform (can be shared with others, but only others that are on the platform) – labeled in white, Unshareable (truly private, only the people you sent the message/post to can view that content) – labeled in green.
The app is called Omnii and is focused on allowing people to own and control their data. The app is currently in Beta on the Google Play Store if anyone is interested :)
I have been working on a more intimate, less addictive, social media and messaging application that I hope can be part of a trend of new apps that help solve this problem. I believe one of the features in current apps that makes them so addictive, for teens especially, is the endless stream of content they have access to - they can view hours and hours of videos from celebrities they don't personally know, content creators they have never met, brands, etc. If we can scale back the endless stream of content (which leads to doom-scrolling), that might be one approach to helping limit screen time without sacrificing the meaningful connection to friends and family that social media enables.