Time for some anti-social (media) behavior…
By: Mark Perring
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Social Media, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency Investment, Token Sale

Social media needs a shake up. In fact no scrub that, the social media environment needs outright revolution. Why not? The existing players have grown too big. Their control too pervasive, too complete — covering everything from what you can and can’t say, to what you’ll do to make them money. What advertising you’ll see, what organizations can get their hands on your personal data, what categories you sit within, what behaviors you’re expected to conform to…

Effectively you, we, all of us have been reduced to series of ‘i’s and ‘o’s’, and this raw data is increasingly being consolidated and controlled by a series of ‘datagarchs’. But if data really is the new oil, shouldn’t we be doing something about it? Tapping it ourselves, and controlling where and when it’s refined and for what purpose? It’s certainly no use relying on hope, or for these growing social media behemoths (love that word) to regulate themselves in a fair and ethical manner. It’s a big question, and one that has implications for the very relationship we want to have with the Internet itself.

That’s because the medium itself has reached a level of maturity where we have to question its future direction. Already we’re seeing platforms such as YouTube, WeChat, and Facebook exerting a growing influence on what content is featured, and what makes it to the top of any search engine. Follow the party line and everything’s fine and dandy. Express views that go against those of the ‘editorial outlook’ and you run the risk of disappearing without a trace. And yes, Facebook (the world’s biggest news distributor) does decide what you’re allowed to see — as does Twitter.

The winds of change

All of which points to a growing fight for the very soul of the Internet as a means of empowering unrestricted human interactions. And don’t take my word for it — Tim Berners-Lee recently stated that his vision for “an open platform that would allow everyone, everywhere to share information, access opportunities, and collaborate across geographic and cultural boundaries” was under threat — before listing three specific trends:

· We’ve lost control of our personal data

· It’s too easy for misinformation to spread on the web

· Political advertising online needs transparency and understanding

Nowhere is this more acute than social media. The challenge here of course is that the enemy is both well financed and well entrenched. Very well entrenched when you consider that 1.37 billion active users visiting Facebook on a daily basis, or the 800 million monthly users logging into Instagram to name just two (I forget, Facebook owns Instagram — let’s go for the 1.5 billion logged-in active Youtube monthly active users instead then). Yet would these platforms be as powerful and attract such numbers if people had the c-word? Yes, choice. Certainly in terms of your personal data, there is limited choice outside a few centralized goliaths owning and exploiting your data — and selling it for their own gain.

But what if there was a choice? In fact more than a choice: what if we could build an entirely new messaging and social media platform from scratch? Clearly we know what we don’t want it to be like, in terms of all the many things the current offerings gets wrong. But let’s think freely for a minute here — what should we be audacious enough to ask for?

A brave new world

To start with, it feels like advertising needs to be addressed. By that I mean allowing people to switch off advertising all together, or to maintain a flexible approach to receiving advertisements dependent on what communities they belong to and what they’re doing.

So for example, I maybe prepared to accept 5 ads a day on my messaging app, but want to switch this off on occasion when there’s an urgent deadline to meet and don’t want any interruptions. Or maybe I would like to operate in stealth mode (no adverts ever!) when engaged in a family community, but accept ten ads a week within a group I belong to of fellow coffee aficionados (don’t judge). Importantly, these ads would also be cocoa-based in flavor and relevant.

Plus, I think it’s also vital to offer people the ability to judge the relevance and quality of the ads they receive, with penalties put in place to restrict advertisers who score negatively. As a result, users would be assured they receive only personalized and relevant content. Then comes the coup de grâce for today’s social media providers — let’s expect (as users) to be paid for our attention, for the advertising we consume, and the participation we offer.

What else? Well how about empowering people to self-regulate the communities they belong to, together, and to set their own criteria for what is and isn’t acceptable (including what’s deemed anti-social behavior etc.)? What’s more, why not give those more frequent users who make the biggest contribution a bigger say in how their communities evolve — with no limitations for who gets involved?

Then there’s rewarding content creators with real value. I mean after all, they’re the one’s who create value on the actual network, and increasingly they’re getting messed about by existing platforms. So surely they should receive incentives for drawing traffic to their pages, and for attracting advertising as well? This is after all the basis for many an online career today, meaning that those people who take the time to build a loyal fan base with their content should indeed receive a handsome reward for their activities!

Finally, why not attach a cryptotoken to the network, as a way of enabling value to flow across it? This would not only allow the advertising rebates to be shared easily and conveniently (again, with an individual’s share being influenced by their level of contribution, their Proof of Contribution score — see our whitepaper for more details), but also help transform the flow of value across international borders — with each cryptotoken available to be turned into a fiat currency of choice when a person needs cold hard cash.

These are the blueprints for social media 2.0. A network where the individual is able to control their own digital footprint, be rewarded for their activity, and share value where and when they want to. Most important of all: each user controls their own privacy settings, meaning no central body collects anything on them (let’s emphasize the word anything here) without their permission.

This is the end of social media 1.0.

This is the end of centralized exploitation of a user’s personal data.

This is Howdoo.