The Problems with Traditional Social Media (and how Blockchain can Solve Them)
By: Nicole Arnott
Tags: ICO, Social Media, Blog, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain

If there’s anything that the past year has taught us, it’s that traditional social media has its warts. From the Facebook Analytica Data Scandal, to constant algorithm changes and unfair ad policies, the problems with social media seem to affect only the users. The unjustice of this is that it’s those people who have made the platforms what they are.

But, what is blockchain, and how can it combat the problems with traditional social media platforms?

Blockchain is known predominantly as the birthplace of Bitcoin. But, it’s potential is so much more than that. Blockchain can be used to create decentralized networks. This means, that any program created using blockchain technology has less power dispersed to central shareholders when compared to traditional programs.

For social media, this means that more of the power is in the hands of the people who deserve it: the users and content creators. Thus, creating a fairer and less corrupt social media ecosystem.

These are some of the main problems with traditional social media that blockchain hopes to solve!

Privacy

Ever been casually searching for a new hamster cage on Google… only to have your Facebook feed bombarded with ads for hamsters, hay and cages for the rest of the week? We’ve all been there! Facebook has access to so much of our data and knows everything we’ve been doing on the internet.

This information is then passed onto marketers and businesses who use the information to target their ads- with freakish accuracy.

Truth be told, no one really knows how else Facebook uses our data. The company knows more about us than most of our governments do, including the value of our homes, our relationship status and even our credit rating.

Blockchain based social media platforms counter this. Since they’ve been created as decentralised platforms, users don’t need to worry about their data being sold to marketers, or anyone else! There’s no central server were this data is held.

Fake News

Fake news has been a hot topic recently. With the rise of social media, a lot of people are now getting their news from non-reputable media channels, rather credible news sources.

This can be more dangerous than you would think. These stories, that can come in the form of clickbait, propoganda or sensationalism, can lead to bias and mis-education. When problems like this get into the psyche of our society, the outcome can be undemocratic election results, racism and even terrorism.

Blockchain social media can minimize this. These platforms puts a huge focus on quality content. Since the content is policed by the users, there’s less chance of fake news being broadcast to the masses.

No Rewards for Content Users

On traditional social media platforms, all the revenue goes back to the shareholders, rather than the content creators who are responsible for making the platform valuable.

Is this fair?

No, this isn’t a fair distribution!

On blockchain social media, the content creators are rewarded for the content that they upload. This puts more value back in the hands of the people who deserve it.

Foresting: A New Blockchain Social Media Platform

Looking to get involved with blockchain based social media? Foresting addresses all of these problems and give content creators even more chances to monetize their content.

Our app is going into beta testing later this year. Keep an eye on our social media to keep up to date with all the latest Foresting news!

Twitter: https://twitter.com/foresting_io

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/forestingHQ

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/foresting.io/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/foresting/