20 years of social posts (+ weekly update)

We're going all red, baby

Mar 01, 2024

It’s been just over 20 years since Facebook launched, so I’m back with a hopefully much better version of the diagram I first drafted in my first Typology post. I’m now laying that same typology out over time:

Looking at this, I find it quite remarkable how much things have changed in 20 years — how red we’re going as the TikTok model takes over.

An interesting thought exercise:

Imagine this as a menu
Choose your preferred options from each line
Which options did you choose?
How do they line up with the social media you actually use?

My preferred options are (perhaps unsurprisingly) all green, with the possible exceptions of Media and Access. And the lining up part doesn’t look good for me. I use several social media platforms — Reddit and Twitter, for instance — with reds that I’d prefer to avoid.

Next up…

This diagram is a work-in-progress. I’d love your suggestions of how to make it pop more — not necessarily in terms of design (since it’s just a sketch), but in terms of structure and how it presents information. Drop any thoughts in the comments.

(Am I missing anything? What’s unclear? What could be shown better? Just off the top of my head, I’m thinking something about the way content is ordered is perhaps interesting, although it’s captured to some extent by Graph.)

Also, look out for remixes of this diagram, as I use its elements in future articles to describe various social media platforms at different points in their history.

Weekly update

Introducing AboutIdeasNow.com: The biggest update this week. Together with Peter Hagen, launched a tool that I impartially happen to think is awesome — a way to find interesting people outside of social networks, by searching across thousands of personal sites. We got to #1 on Hacker News, ending at #2 for the day, and got some wonderful engagement from the community there, in addition to hundreds of people submitting their sites.
Help me stop the EU bullying Apple: I wrote a satirical call-to-action to protect the rights of trillion dollar companies.
Challenge 3, Missing Billions: Had a good conversation about this, which I’m going to keep under wraps for now.
Challenge 2, TrojanTok: Work continuing!
Challenge 1, Linknames: Nothing this week.
Social activity: Had a rough time trying to get Reddit to enjoy satire. Got reposted by total legend Cory Doctorow again as well as Alex Russell, the writer of a very cool series about browser choice.
Stats: 162 subscribers, up 4 from last week. That’s OK though, because tough times never last, only tough people last.