Internet has transformed our life like no other technologies. However, it has created several problems as well. The article analyses such issues.
Examining the role of social media
- The first reason for the examination of role is the impending US presidential election.
- Ghosts of Cambridge Analytica, are returning to haunt us again.
- The second reason is the COVID pandemic.
- Social media has emerged as a force for good, with effective communication and lockdown entertainment, but also for evil, being used effectively by anti-vaxxers and the #Unmask movement to proselytize their dangerous agenda.
Understanding the problems associated with social media
- The big problem with social networks is their business model.
- The internet was created as a distributed set of computers communicating with one another, and sharing the load of managing the network.
- This was Web 1.0, and it worked very well. But it had one big problem—there was no way to make money off it.
- The internet got monetized, Web 2.0 was born.
- Come 2020, search and social media advertising has crossed $200 billion, rocketing past print at $65 billion, and TV at $180 billion.
- This business model has led to a “winner-takes-all” industry structure, creating natural monopolies and centralizing the once-decentralized internet.
- The emergence of Web 3.0, a revolution that promises to return the internet to users.
Way forward
- One principle of the new model is to allow users explicit control of their data, an initiative aided by Europe-like data protection regulation.
- Another is to grant creators of content—artists, musicians, photographers, —a portion of revenues, instead of platforms taking it all (or most).
- The technologies that Web 3.0 leverages are newer ones, like blockchains, which are inherently decentralized.
- They have technology protection against the accumulation of power and data in the hands of a few.
- Digital currencies enabled by these technologies offer a business model of users paying for services and content with micro-transactions, as an alternative to advertiser-pays.
Conclusion
The path to success for these new kinds of democratic networks will be arduous. But a revolution has begun, and it is our revulsion of current models that could relieve us of our social dilemmas.
