social media

When Good Things Are Bad Ideas

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve’s Tumblr, and Pillowfort.  Find out more at my newsletter, and all my social media at my linktr.ee)

In Project Management there’s something called the Iron Triangle or the Project Management Triangle.  A project has to balance between Time, Scope, and Cost to keep up quality.  You can have two the way you want at best, but the third will become unpredictable, unlimitable, or you’ll have to accept some serious changes.

If you want things done your way on time, get ready for it to cost more.  If you want something at a set cost and scope, get ready for time to get a might out of control.  If you want things on time and for a set cost, get ready to reduce your scope.  Play too fast and loose and things will fall apart.

We’re taught that doing things Fast (time), Accurately (Scope), and Cheap (cost).  But those things aren’t always good and can’t always be done together.  We Project Managers remind people of this again and again, often with “I told you so.”

Which leads me to our current crisis in social media where everything is, well, rather dumb.  I have no idea where the hell Twitter is actually going.  Facebook keeps trying new things, but the core experience is kinda ad-filled and unpleasant.  There’s not a lot of innovation out there, and it’s becoming more and more clear we’re the product.

But when you think of the Iron Triangle it all makes sense.  Social Media companies want to have it all ways – making money (cost) do everything to keep people and advertisers (scope) and do it all fast (time).  As people like me constantly remind folks you cannot do this.

Sometimes cheap, effective, and fast are bad ideas.  My job – my own habits – lead me to wanting to be cheap, effective, and fast and I know they’re not always good.

Social media is “free” but the money has to come from somewhere and people invested in it want to make money.  This means the enshitification we’ve seen is near inevitable.  People don’t want to pay, advertisers aren’t always happy, and executives want to make the big bucks.  That may not be sustainable.

Cost is a problem in social media (and that cost isn’t always money).

Social media has to provide some service but there aren’t a lot of new ideas (look at all the Twitter clones), and way too much seems to be well we got used to it.  I’m suspicious that a lot of social media we love now is habit not it’s stuff we actually need.  Throw in companies trying to do everything or anything regardless if it can work or people want it?

What’s the scope for social media?  Hell, who’s the real customer?  The users aren’t exactly unless you charge appropriately and that brings in the cost problem.

Finally, sure social media is efficient in some ways – you do a lot, fast, in a unified interface.  Sure technology lets us deliver features fast.  But is fast good?  Who needs new features we don’t care about?  Is it really vital we be able to reply immediately to someone’s movie opinions?  So we need to do everything from one app that’s also potentially vulnerable?

What’s the real timeframe we need with our social media – if we need social media as we know it now?

Social Media has walked face-first into the Iron Triangle which would normally collapse projects and businesses.  But they got enough of a footprint, did enough right at first that they can keep going, maybe forever.  But at best right now a lot of them are a mix of pet projects and money extraction machines, and maybe lawsuit fodder.

Some of us might even get to say “I told you so.”  Well, more than we have.

Steven Savage

Expected Enjoyment

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve’s Tumblr, and Pillowfort.  Find out more at my newsletter, and all my social media at my linktr.ee)

I was discussing popular works with Serdar, and both had experienced the pressure to enjoy something everyone else was enjoying.  I felt it had gotten worse in the last two decades and was honestly getting the hell on my nerves.  There were more choices, but it seemed more pressure to like certain things, and I’ve been trying to articulate it.

I grew up with “Must See TV” and every year had some blockbuster in the theater, but that was different.  Dallas was big, but people seemed to accept it might not be your cup of tea – and I was ten, so I didn’t care.  I loved Star Wars, but it was a bolt-of-lightning thing, and no one expected everyone to like it.  There were Big Things, but I don’t recall the sheer pressure to like them.

The ever-expanding world of cable television, foreign films, anime, and the internet brought us even more options.  In the 1990’s the idea of something being Mandatory Fun (apologies to Weird Al) was alien to me – there was something for everyone and more of it all the time.  Why have something feel mandatory?

Then came Harry Potter.  I am loathe to discuss it due to the author’s horrid transphobia, but as this is a historical rant and thus I strive for accuracy.

Harry Potter was something everyone seemed into, and I felt pressure to read it, which irritated the hell out of me.  I think the fact that it was an internet sensation made it omnipresent, people didn’t get you might not be into it because all their friends were.  It was an internet-fueled Blockbuster.

(I did eventually read it, by the way, after people had backed off.)

To this day, the internet and social media have a selective amplification effect.  Something can take off, amplified by social media algorithms and good marketing, and soon you’re sick of hearing about it. Chats, posts, memes, etc. all amplify certain things repeatedly – people doing marketing for free.  At some point, you’re missing having a political argument with your crazy relatives because they’re busy telling you about this new TV show you have to watch.

The wealth of movies, shows, and books we have doesn’t free us either – and I blame social media and marketing for that as well.  People can easily find fellow fans – and assume everyone else has similar interests.  Algorithm-driven ads target you relentlessly.  More choices somehow led to more pressure, and we’ve forgotten not everyone cares about the same things.  Now we just have more not to care about.

Finally, you have the synergy of media universes: Marvel, Star Trek, and Star Wars.  These giant unified properties (and marketing efforts) amplify each other.  Show A leads to movie B, leads to webseries C, all funneling you into a giant media matrix.  Throw in social pressure and social media amplification trying to manipulate you, and you start feeling like you’re a very poor take of They Live, only you’re not as cool as Rowdy Roddy Piper.

We’re living inside a giant marketing machine of technology and social habits.

I’m not proposing a way out, I’m here to analyze and complain.  Perhaps I’ll present some brilliant solutions in the future, but right now, I understand better, saying “no” more, expanding my horizons, and just doing what I like.

Maybe I’ll have more to say.  But now I’m just glad to have it out of my head – and into yours.  So I’d love your thoughts.

Steven Savage

My Mastodon Experience

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve’s Tumblr, and Pillowfort.  Find out more at my newsletter, and all my social media at my linktr.ee)

A lot of people are moving to Mastodon, which means many people have opinions about Mastodon.  I wished to share my own here because we’ve got to ask hard questions about our social media use and how it’s consolidated in a few hands.  Mastodon promises to be part of the solution.

First, though you probably know this, Mastodon is an open-source Twitter-like system made of multiple private servers.  Networked (federated) together by open protocols, you get the whole Twitter micro-blogging experience without central ownership.  People and servers can block various instances, which helps to (mostly) cut down on bad actors.  Other software and sites – many substitutes for Big Social Media – integrate into this “Fediverse” so it’s well worth exploring.

Me, I created a membership on the big server Mastodon.social, but plan to move to a specialty server at some point.  That’s one of the neat things – you can move memberships between servers.  I have no problem with Mastodon.social – I just want to find a community to be part of.

MY ADVICE: Just find a reliable server and open something.  Move later.

Speaking of support, most Mastodon servers are obviously private and privately funded.  Many have patreons, use Ko-fi, etc. for funding.  This is great as you (or your server owner) are independent, but it also means that you should be ponying up the money.

MY ADVICE: Join the Mastodon main patreon and fund them, and then fund the server you’re on.  Be part of the community.

Because there are many separate servers, Mastodon’s larger federated universe (fediverse) is a collection of connected communities.  This makes it more stable as there’s no centralization, but also I’ve found it cultivates communities.  Servers usually have a specific purpose to support an interest, community, industry, or geographic region.  Communities can self-regulate (or get blocked), people can find specific interests easier, and tighter bonds are created.

MY ADVICE: After you join, start following people and checking out servers to look for interests.  Be part of your community.

You have to cultivate your experience on Mastodon – which is good because there’s no algorithm trying to make you angry or get you to buy pants.  There’s no trending items being thrown in your face due to computations, and virality only happens due to people promoting stuff. Freed of the mathematics of engagements, you get out of it what you put into it.  Follow people, use lists, promote Toots, and employ (and search for hashtags) to get what you want.

MY ADVICE: Really explore the tools Mastodon has to manage your experience and employ them all.

Finally, I found you have to approach Mastodon with asking what you really want out of it*  One of the problems with Twitter was people were on Twitter as everyone else was on there.  Mastodon, with it’s many communities and people-driven connections, requires you to ask what your purpose is and find the best people, servers, and hashtags to reach it.

MY ADVICE: Ask what you really wanted Twitter for, what you want out of social media, and then approach Mastodon with purpose.  You might even find you were on Twitter “just do it” and have to do some deep analysis (and possibly therapy)

Is Mastodon worth it?  For me the answer is hell yes! Mastodon forced me to think of my goals, but then I found it was easy to find and build communities as the distractions of Twitter weren’t there.  Moderation was better than I expected because I expected none and though there are problems I’m at least seeing real discussions of real solutions people can implement.  It’s also nice to be part of something growing.

Plus freed of trending topics and the chaos of Twitter, I honestly feel more relaxed.  Like many, I think maybe I was on Twitter to be on Twitter more than I admitted.

See you on Mastodon.

Steven Savage