Centralized Social Media is Broken - There is a Better Alternative on Hive.io

Legacy (WEB2) and centralized social media is broken by design, and by use patterns. In the case of Twitter or X, it certainly serves some useful functions as a public forum with conditionally limited public speech, and a vector for discovery (news, current events, citizen journalism) and marketing or promotion. Because of centralization Government Entities or their proxies, and advertisers can bring significant pressure on legacy social media. In era of pre Elon Musk Twitter, is has been thoroughly substantiated that individuals within the United States Government or their delegated proxies did in fact exert substantial control over user content on Twitter. See the Twitter Files.

In the Twitter-model users create the content which Twitter effectively owns and stores in centralized servers. Users are shown advertisements, with the intention that revenue covers the cost of operations plus profit. Almost no monetary benefit flows to the vast majority of users, though some create funnels to products, services, or other monetized platforms.

By far the most common token of exchange on Twitter and similar platforms is dopamine. Sweet, wonderful blissful dopamine with just a touch of adrenaline. Many users may come to Twitter with the intent of interacting with a niche group or a specific hobby, but even the most benign topics can and will be taken over by contention. There is no inbuilt mechanism on Twitter that incentivizes civility, and trainwrecks and infernos get eyeballs. Moderate voices discussing even serious issues will be drowned out by the noise.

Given that Twitter and social media in general exists in a feedback cycle with politics and reporting, the articles that get written and the reporting have and will continue be tailored to produce the most powerful emotional reactions. Clickthrough's to reactionary content generates substantial ad revenue for pundits and reporters. Even media consumers who have never used Twitter are impacted by the performative ideological fights that occur. The Israeli-Gaza conflict has even featured personalities, pundits, Governments and world leaders all viciously fighting to shape and control the emerging narratives on Twitter.

In the accelerated time frame of a reactionary environment - no user can realistically process and evaluate the barrage of emotionally charged information they are assailed with
as they scroll through their feed and begin to engage. Because of the reactionary imperative - users are conditioned to divide themselves on narrower and ever more granular points. Frens today, may be bitter opponents the next over opinions on matters that likely neither have an iota of control over.

This doesn't mean should abandon legacy social media - the larger platforms are the digital town square - but we should be aware of the mechanisms and how they may unconsciously shape and impact our own opinions, emotional state and even cognition. Use WEB2 social media with a purpose - and deliberate intent. For those of us passionate about decentralized social media and censorship resistance we can point users to Hive in general, InLeio.io, 3speak.tv, and your favorite communities. Each time a new person comes in contact with Hive - their curiosity and interest can be incrementally raised to the point of action.

Creating interesting original content and thinking for yourself amidst the reactionary currents is an order of magnitude more challenging than joining the mob. Each new user in the Hive helps create and sustain an oasis of free speech and reason. Human nature being what it is - there are no utopias, and no frictionless solutions. The mechanisms baked into Hive directly incentivize and encourage at least a base level of cooperation and civility.