Social networks, even the very biggest, are virtually worthless without people — not just as customers, but as sources of value for other customers. The term of art for this phenomenon is the “network effect,” a concept predating social media and the internet in general. A social network needs multiple users to function at all, but tends to become more compelling the more it connects.
Where else would I read tweets? Stuckness is struggling to quantify, or merely conceptualize, the cost of leaving a network into which you’ve invested time and attention. Stuckness is a basic sense of obligation, co-opted and turned back against you. Stuckness is the lingering, uneasy spirit of the long-passed fear of missing out.
Stuckness is also the inevitable result of a commercialized social and civic space, built only to grow. Stuckness is not quite the same as “needing to be here for work,” but not entirely different, either.
This is an interesting opinion piece about a feeling many of us feel on a social network at some time. There are no easy answers either: You can't keep jumping across networks and expecting your entire following to keep up moving with you, and similar problems also manifest on newer networks you try.
My best advice is to be ruthless in what and who you follow and interact with. If people upset you, unfollow or block them as not everyone wants to be confrontational. Try also to migrate to networks where you can follow interests/hobbies rather than individual people, such as Reddit, MeWe, YouMe Social, etc where the network does not revolve solely around a profile. These will likely be more relevant and interesting to you, and may inspire you too to further your own interests and passions.
See
How Did We Get So Stuck on Here?#
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Our complicated relationship with social media might be simpler than it feels. Just remember how it started.
