How I learned to not fear Trump and Social Media

How I learned to not fear Trump and Social Media

(Note: This starts out as political, but it isn't a political essay. It's about trust in media, so bear with me.)

Lots of pundits are checking in about how awful it is for #Facebook and #Twitter to have reinstated #donaldtrump . I'm pretty sure it isn't awful. It seems absolutely meaningless.

The image of big Donnie in 2016 is completely different from what it is today. Then he was considered by many, including detractors, as a successful businessman who knew how to work the system. There were concerns about his bluster and how he treated people, but everyone had a boss that was like him and he was more of a mean joke than someone to take seriously.

Today, we know, for a fact, that he is a horrible businessman who has lost billions of other people's money and millions of his own. Businesses know they are taking an enormous risk doing business with him. As a politician, he is, possibly, more dishonest than Representative George Santos (although the jury is still out on that one). In the end, the only people that still have any respect for him do not represent a majority anywhere. There are, in fact, more dangerous versions of him already in the public eye.

All that to say, whatever he does on any platform, including his own weird attempts (#TrustSocial) will not move the needle on his influence. He has significantly blown his credibility wad with anyone who might still be on the fence. Yes, there are a significant number of people still in his thrall that can do some real damage (e.g. #january6th), but the courts and the DoJ are dealing with them.

What is really giving me confidence that there will be no recurrence of what happened in 2016, and a couple of years before, is that the social media user base has found out that the major, for-profit, social media platforms really don't care about making the world a better place. #Zuckerberg and #Musk want everyone stupid, frightened, and angry because that makes it easier to sell them fraudulent crap.

That isn't working anymore. Over the past few years, Gallup and Pew research has shown a steady decline in trust in social media as a source of information. It currently sits at 10 per cent. Yes, only 10 per cent of the social media audience trusts what they see on social media. They just don't have the influence they had 6 years ago.

A big reason I'm not fearful of the return of "The Donald" is the growing influence, however, are print newspapers. While still economically challenged, print publications are seeing a renaissance of interest from the public. Moreover, the Gallup and Pew research shows that while less than 10 per cent of the public gets their news from print, 67 per cent trust what they read.

Another reason is because of old Elon himself. Twitter recently added some transparency at his demand that showed how many people actually see the tweets, as opposed to the numbers advertisers look at. A recent substack post I follow pointed out that when he shared his posts on Twitter, despite having tens of thousands of followers, only a few hundred actually saw the posts, whereas the number of people opening his posts in email was twice that total. He said that he thought he could not leave Twitter without damaging his following, but he's rethinking that belief. Twitter's new feature has demonstrated its lack of reach and relevance.

Finally, the emergence of decentralized social media. Yeah, I know. "Decentralized" is a popular tech buzzword now and has its own problems, but services like Mastodon have shown the value of not having Mark Zuckerberg in charge of what we consume in media.

In the end, there are a lot of things to worry about, but what we've gone through with Trump and centralized social media is not that big a deal anymore. The market and government regulation are taking care of that.

Find me on Mastodon at @[email protected] and @[email protected]. I write for Cyber Protection Magazine and podcast at Crucial Tech

Christopher Schneider

ChatGPT Trainer | AI Generalist | Prompt Engineer | Community Outreach AI/LLM OnBoarding | Senior Software Trainer | Consultant | Owner, PCTS4you.com | Owner, FeistyJackball Productions | Bitcoin Educator

2 年

Meta isn't ignorant of the numbers, right? Their ad revenue is down and the waves of $$$ that will be spent for upcoming political ads on their platform will satisfy shareholders. Zuck needs $. Is what it is.

回复

要查看或添加评论,请登录

Lou Covey的更多文章

  • How to use AI to write

    How to use AI to write

    I find more posts lately asking about the efficacy of generative AI for improving writing. However, as someone who has…

    1 条评论
  • The transformation of social media is complete

    The transformation of social media is complete

    It is not a wild position to say social media is now mainstream media, but I was awakened this morning by an idea that…

  • Get the news right and it doesn't matter who is first

    Get the news right and it doesn't matter who is first

    The New Orleans terror attack on January 1 gives us an opportunity to look at the limitations of legitimate press and…

    1 条评论
  • Recalling an 18-year career

    Recalling an 18-year career

    For the past 18 years, I have had an office manager named Katerina. She joined us very young and was more entertaining…

    9 条评论
  • Does Santa exist?

    Does Santa exist?

    Mark Stockley, cohost of the AI Fix Podcast, on Christmas Eve posted a podcast in which he proved, according to…

    10 条评论
  • The future of AI is not the Terminator or the Matrix

    The future of AI is not the Terminator or the Matrix

    At Cyber Protection Magazine we are trying to figure out how to incorporate #AI into our process. It isn't easy.

    11 条评论
  • How 'listicles' are created

    How 'listicles' are created

    You see them all the time in news feeds and social media, but do you ever wonder where those articles based on lists of…

  • Kamala Harris wants to save corporations from themselves

    Kamala Harris wants to save corporations from themselves

    A lot of economics pontificaters are, like Josh Barro in The Atlantic are calling Vice President Kamala Harris'…

    31 条评论
  • A note on real "Hillbillies"

    A note on real "Hillbillies"

    J.D.

    5 条评论
  • Let's call the whole thing off

    Let's call the whole thing off

    I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, The AI Fix with Graham Cluey and Mark Stockley, and they were arguing…

    3 条评论

社区洞察

其他会员也浏览了