Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Things I was Wrong About Pt3 - The democratisation of social media

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

Another of Martin Weller's "I was wrong" posts (and as long as he keeps posting them, I'm going to keep linking to them). This one is on social media. "When it's just a bunch of nerds talking to each other, no-one cares, but when it's everyone, then it becomes worth subverting and controlling." Now I think we need to distinguish between web 2.0, which encouraged user-created content, and social media, which encourages texting and following. They are two very different things. The latter (as seen in TikTok, Facebook and Twitter) is easy to co-opt and control. The former is a lot harder - indeed, it was and is our only response to the co-option and control of both traditional media and social media. We need a web where people have a voice. That was never wrong. Putting that voice in billionaire-controlled silos was.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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