Crafting The Perfect Social Media App
Tracy Le Blanc - Person Holding iPhone Showing Social Networks Folder - Pexels.com
Americans, as divided as we are at the moment, can at least agree on that.
Social media giants like Facebook and Twitter have faced a litany of bad news recently, regarding privacy concerns, troll farms, bullying, and plain old dissatisfaction with their services.
As I recently wrote in another article, these platforms have a monopoly on the industry. Every app fills a different niche, and smaller competitors are bought out or stomped out. Because behemoths like Facebook and Twitter have no competition, there’s no incentive for them to improve. If you don’t like how Facebook operates, but would still like to use an app similar to Facebook, where are you gonna go? Myspace? You’re faced with a clear choice: Facebook, or nothing.
But while these companies currently have us in a chokehold, their string of bad press and overall incompetency has created a wide open lane for a new app to thrive. An app that learns from the mistakes of their predecessors and exposes their vulnerabilities.
I’ve complied a list of ideas that I think would make for a quality social media app, and one that could pose a threat to the social media hierarchy as we know it.
Here are some ideas I think could turn a fresh faced app into a worthy challenger.
Make It A Paid Subscription
Probably the most controversial idea on this list, but also the most crucial. This opens up the door for the rest of the ideas I’ll be mapping out. Nothing moves without this one.
The idea is simple: Current social media apps have turned its users into the product. The app is free, and so in their minds, you get what you pay for. They’re doing you a favor, by providing a totally free platform - so if they want to sell your data to anyone and everyone who asks for it as a way for them to turn a profit, so be it. If that experience also includes promoting “influencer” accounts through an algorithm that throttles the organic outreach of smaller brands and creators, as well as provides a breeding ground for troll farms to sow discord - well, it is what it is. It’s free! You should be happy!
By making it paid, you’re making the app the product, which it should be.
I think if you polled people, and asked if they were willing to pay $5-$10 a month for an app that didn’t beat them over the head with ads, didn’t sell their data, didn’t have an algorithm, and made it much harder for bots to spread disinformation, most people would be on board. Though there’s still no escaping the FOMO and subsequent depression that often haunts us as we scroll through our feeds. Sorry, there’s no remedy for that - unless you go off the grid completely.
No Ads
No more random ads popping up in your feed. Instead of celebrity selfie, vacation picture, and a 30 second Tide video; it would be celebrity selfie, vacation picture, dank meme. As it should be. Again, this only works if the app has a paid subscription.
No Algorithm
How about we go back to a chronological feed? Or at the very least, provide an option for paying customers to decide who has better judgement when it comes to displaying content you want to see - you, or a computer running purely on emotionally detached code. Call me crazy, but I assume if you’ve decided to follow a person’s social media page, it’s because you like what they’re posting, and want to see more of it. Meaning, if they made a post at 12 noon, you’d probably want to see it at…12 noon. Radical, I know.
Maybe there’s people out there who enjoy having a computer make decisions for them. Hey, knock yourself out! That’s why it would be an optional feature. Let the customers decide how they want their experiences to go.
No shadow banning. No making those who are rich in social media attention even richer. '“Influencers” will have to grow their engagement organically, like everyone else - by producing quality content consistently; as opposed to letting the app’s developers play kingmaker and deciding which accounts are popular by pushing their posts and throttling others, all because they want to attract businesses and traffic to those specific pages purely for monetary reasons.
No Selling Of Personal Data
Every idea I’ve listed can only be made possible through a paid subscription, and this one is no different. As stated before, the tech giants see their users as the product, whose data they then sell to businesses and other, potentially nefarious, third parties. But when you become the customer, and you’re the one giving your money, there’s no reason to bank off your data. In a world that’s quickly making every aspect of our lives digital - privacy has never been more important. We shop online, we bank online, we send sensitive texts, emails, and files. Our social media accounts are an extension of who we are - and all of that information should be safeguarded; not fall into the hands of people/entities that you haven’t authorized to receive it, and often times, have no idea they’re even receiving it.
Allow For NSFW Content
Tumblr learned this the hard way. After their ban on adult content, they lost 30% of their traffic. By banning any and all images deemed pornographic, they inadvertently destroyed a safe haven for those expressing their sexuality; in particular, sex workers, and those in the LGBTQ community who used the site as a safe space to interact with other likeminded users and provide a judgement-free platform in which they can further explore their fetishes/kinks/lifestyles/etc. It was also popular among straight women, who largely saw it as a healthier, more attractive alternative to mainstream porn that’s largely geared towards straight men.
Nipples aren’t the enemy. Chasing more advertising dollars under the guise of quasi-puritanical, self-righteous bullshit is the enemy..
Allow for parental controls, or require all users to be at least 18 years old to join. Allow for users to flag content that appears to be illegal. Install a competent algorithm (this is one instance where algorithms are necessary) that can detect child pornography and other illegal, disturbing forms of adult content.
For all their missteps, Facebook/Instagram and Twitter do this pretty effectively, whereas Tumblr’s algorithm couldn’t measure up, and as a result, the company decided it was easier and safer to just eliminate all adult content, as opposed to stepping up their game and joining the bigger platforms in their vigilance.
Eliminate All Hate Speech, Bullying, And Trolls
This is probably the hardest to pull off, but is necessary for our society as a whole going forward. We have to be able to limit the outreach of, and in turn - damage done by - hate groups and troll farms.
A zero tolerance policy on extremist groups and individuals alike. A more vigilant approach to eliminating obvious bot accounts.
If people are going to be paying for this service, their wants and needs have to be met. Security and safety would be of the utmost importance, as opposed to the lackadaisical, half-hearted approach taken by companies who feel they’re doing you a favor by providing a free platform.
We live in a capitalist society. One that allows customers to dictate the economic climate. If an app was created that exposed the weaknesses of our current crop of social media platforms, and in turn generated a buzz, those rival platforms would be forced to adapt, or die.
Right now, no one is challenging the giants. That has to change. The success and safety of our digital future depends on it.