After more than a decade of studying the intricacies of social media from the inside and out, I just felt tired of the structures and habits they program into us. Are relationships made of likes from family members, birthday wishes from strangers, and retweets from long-lost colleagues? Or is this stuff just something that was invented all those years ago? The shame is that these tools are so convenient and addictive that, at times, they can start to replace the real thing. #spirituality #love #spiritual #meditation #spiritualawakening #healing #peace #selflove #mindfulness #life #yoga #awakening #consciousness #motivation #inspiration #wisdom #god #soul #energy #tarot #believe #faith #lawofattraction #quotes #nature #art #enlightenment #spiritualjourney #happiness #lightworker

“Being a product is coded as success in our society… What people don’t want is to be exploited or misled — and that is hard to avoid in the context of ad-supported media.” And so, a bizarre symbiosis is formed between platform, user, and advertiser. The apps have changed, but so have users, leaving that precious early social media feeling out in the cold again.

People refuse to believe that they, too, are responsible for the growth of today’s social media, Only later do we look back and reminisce on how fun things used to be, whether it was Instagram’s early filters, Facebook’s wall posts, Snapchat’s selfie messages, or Twitter’s mundane text posts. But would we go back?

In these nostalgic sentiments — which appear on social media, of course — I’ve always sensed denial. People refuse to believe that they, too, are responsible for the growth of today’s social media as well as the death of apps like the intimate and beautiful Path they eagerly pine for. “Monetizing creator-audience transactions directly is a much higher [average revenue per user] endeavor than monetizing off of advertising.” We pay for all kinds of software, from to-do apps and dating apps to money management and streaming apps. We pay for creators, avocados, and $5 cappuccinos. We even used to pay for email from ISPs! So surely people would be willing to cough up a few dollars a month for software that facilitates our most important relationships. The cost of transmitting texts, photos, and videos — the bread and butter of social media — gets cheaper every day.

However, the promise of ads may simply be too good to turn down. Advertisers are simply willing to pay more for the product than its actual users. In Facebook’s case, the company makes something like $200 per year of ad revenue on each American user, but how many of those users would pay $15 / month to use Facebook? #mentalhealth #mentalhealthawareness #selfcare #selflove #anxiety #love #mentalhealthmatters #depression #motivation #health #wellness #mindfulness #healing #fitness #life #loveyourself #therapy #inspiration #happiness #mindset #positivity #positivevibes #quotes #meditation #mentalillness #psychology #wellbeing #recovery

Users seem doomed to be unhappy in this overquantified world of “social.” And businesses seem doomed to expect more from the social services they create. Perhaps this was just a blip in the journey of tech, born of a time when oversharing was novel and fun. Indeed, I remember the joy of posting hundreds of photos to Facebook the day after a party, excited to relive those memories with friends. At the time, it felt like a new form of connection.Now, I just text them. #positivevibes #crystals #selfcare #spiritualgrowth #universe #spirit #gratitude #bhfyp #astrology #manifestation #chakras #hope #witchesofinstagram #truth #positivity #instagood #witch #psychic #loveyourself #goodvibes #higherconsciousness #mentalhealth #intuition #mind #mindset #meditate #religion #reiki #wellness #magic