Nothing will ever feel the same. It’s an illusion to think that one platform will ever ‘replace’ another. In my 20+ years of being online (oh God), that has never happened. Platforms will eventually fade away or become unbearable, but the void will be filled by many other niche platforms.
Google+ didn’t succeed because it aimed to replace Facebook. Now it’s WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, it’s BeReal, it’s Instagram, it’s TikTok. My guess is that it will be Lemmy for the nerds, Reddit for what “they” think it’s for (when I look at “new” Reddit — something like 9gag), and other platforms for what I can’t think of yet.
However, the Fediverse certainly reminds me of the internet as it was about 15 years ago when it focused on open protocols and similar aspects. XMPP comes to mind. I am filled with joy when experiencing the freedom and prospect of an Internet without dependency on but commercial companies again.
imo techies have always focused on open protocols (and I dont mean bro-grammers). What we’re seeing instead is more and more of the not-necessarily-technical crowd realize that open protocols are a good thing too. It’s really just a matter of time before someone comes up with a protocol good enough that “solves” social media in an open and free way. This fed stuff seems the best candidate so far, but it is too confusing for a lot of people. Will be interesting to see if any good UX minded individuals will have a strong enough influence on one of the instances to garner a stronger crowd
Nothing will ever feel the same. It’s an illusion to think that one platform will ever ‘replace’ another. In my 20+ years of being online (oh God), that has never happened. Platforms will eventually fade away or become unbearable, but the void will be filled by many other niche platforms. Google+ didn’t succeed because it aimed to replace Facebook. Now it’s WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, it’s BeReal, it’s Instagram, it’s TikTok. My guess is that it will be Lemmy for the nerds, Reddit for what “they” think it’s for (when I look at “new” Reddit — something like 9gag), and other platforms for what I can’t think of yet. However, the Fediverse certainly reminds me of the internet as it was about 15 years ago when it focused on open protocols and similar aspects. XMPP comes to mind. I am filled with joy when experiencing the freedom and prospect of an Internet without dependency on but commercial companies again.
I’d never even heard of BeReal, personally.
imo techies have always focused on open protocols (and I dont mean bro-grammers). What we’re seeing instead is more and more of the not-necessarily-technical crowd realize that open protocols are a good thing too. It’s really just a matter of time before someone comes up with a protocol good enough that “solves” social media in an open and free way. This fed stuff seems the best candidate so far, but it is too confusing for a lot of people. Will be interesting to see if any good UX minded individuals will have a strong enough influence on one of the instances to garner a stronger crowd