[hn-ifs]

I've never really got social media in any of its forms. I use messaging apps to stay in contact with people I like, but that's about it.

I skimmed this article, I still don't get it. I think group chats cover most of what the author is taking about, public and private ones. But this might be my lack of imagination. I feel there article, and by extension, the talk could have been a lot shorter.

[johnnyanmac]

> skimmed this article, I still don't get it.

But you're posting here, in socisl media, no? So you sought out something here that a group chat wouldn't give.

Most of the article here is focused more on making sure any social media (be it chats, a public forum, or email) isn't hijacked by vested powers who want to spread propaganda or drown the user in ads. One approach to that focused in this article is decentralization, which gives a user the ability to take their ball and go home.

Of course, it's futile if the user doesn't care about wielding that power.

[hn-ifs]

> But you're posting here, in socisl media, no? So you sought out something here that a group chat wouldn't give.

This is true, of course. I'm here interacting with strangers. But, for me, HN is about discovery not community like what the article talks about. I'd be just as content not posting if the ability wasn't there. I just don't agree that social media is that important.

I personally think what the article talks about is already available in the form of group chats on platforms like signal. My impression, from the article, is the author is extremely politically motivated and seems to believe social media is somehow a good thing, as long as the people they don't like can't control it , and likely can't use it? That last point might not be true.

[Gigachad]

Group chats are where real people socialise with their actual friends now. Social media is where people consume infinite slop feeds for entertainment. The days of people posting their weekend on Facebook are long gone.

[next_xibalba]

> The days of people posting their weekend on Facebook are long gone.

All of my friends do this on instagram or snap.

[nutjob2]

> consume infinite slop feeds for entertainment

I wish this was true. Far too many people mistake the content of social media for some kind of truth.

[noman-land]

Group chats are lowercase S social media but they still benefit from being open.

[hn-ifs]

By open do you mean not centralised? I don't get the significance of big S social media. Functionally how would big S improve on group chats?