Am I Getting Old?
I am of the generation of young adults who watched Myspace come and go. While I spent much less time on Myspace due to my parent’s dislike of social media, even as a child I had a strange feeling about social media. Something about intentionally revealing your identity on the internet never felt right to me. As the years go by, my understanding of this feeling has become clearer. As mentioned before, I was on the internet and operating computers about as early as 3 or 4 years old. Because I was acquainted with it far before the mid 2000s, the version of the internet I was familiar with did not usually reveal identities. Forum style websites were still huge and the users of the internet all wanted to contribute to building something without seeking recognition, credit, or payment. The point was to have a cool persona and username, and to avoid describing the real life version of yourself. Fast forward to present day and we have TikTok, Instagram, X, LinkedIn and others, where you can essentially follow people from platform to platform and consume the story of their lives. I ask myself if I am getting old because I remember a version of some of these same platforms that focused on the connection between friends that you already know in real life and less focus on those that you don’t. Social media is no longer social, these are content platforms backed by algorithms that are comparable to youtube. If you remember the early 2010s, it would be insane to believe that Instagram and Twitter would be competitors to youtube someday as the platforms all served completely different purposes.
So What?
Maybe I just miss the way things were, but I also get an unsettling feeling about the lack of privacy these days. As a security professional, when I watch content from creators on social media platforms, I subconsciously connect dots and figure out tons of details about people. Ultimately, if you work hard enough these details can be found about anonymous accounts as well, but it’s less likely. I often get second hand paranoia for the people of the internet, largely because this is the internet that we have built and there’s no escaping it. Undoubtedly, there will come a day where my child will want to participate on these platforms and I will have to figure out how to handle that.
What I Would Like To See
These days, I am just a spectator on social media. Once I built a family, there was no longer any reason to post and I only retain accounts because the people I interact with on a daily basis like to send me content that they find interesting or funny. I think it’s generally fine to be a consumer of these platforms, but I wish every account did not have to be capable of posting. Now that we have reached the point of transitioning from social media to content platforms, this could be treated like Netflix. Myself or my kid should be able to have a spectator account which allows the ability to sign in and view content but does not allow posting. This directly opposes the business model of these platforms but it would create a healthier future in my opinion.
By the way… I applaud reddit for keeping anonymous forums alive, it has always been a breath of fresh air.