Reading Time: < 1 min It’s popular to say that our attention spans are getting shorter (though not like a goldfish), but that may not be entirely true. Studies are mixed, but it’s not clear that they’re getting shorter. Tools like TikTok help play into this idea, where users are fed an endless stream of very short videos to help […]
Social Media
Theoretically altruistic journalism
Reading Time: 2 min The latest episode of the “You’re Wrong About” podcast focuses on phones, and makes the argument that phones are generally a good thing for people to have — even teens. Included in the show was a discussion on the potential ban of TikTok, where they shared: And it’s not about improving these systems or improving […]
If your goal is to bring people to your website, don’t immediately ask them to leave
Reading Time: 2 min An interesting trend I’ve noticed over the last few years is for websites to include links to their social media platforms at the very top of the site. It seems counter-productive to work hard to bring users to your website, only to immediately ask them to go off to Facebook or Instagram instead. There are […]
Viral posts versus 1-on-1
Reading Time: < 1 min I’m finding Threads to be an excellent social media platform right now. It’s grown large enough to have great conversations, but not too large (yet) that it invites in all of the chaos. It’ll be interesting to see how it continues to grow, but right now it’s an excellent space to spend time in. Rand […]
There’s still a world outside these walls
Reading Time: 3 min For those of you over 40, you can likely still remember the “good old days” on the internet, back when people set up their own places to visit, rather than relying on a handful of huge companies trying to lock your attention inside of their walls (which is very likely how you found this post). […]
The value of having social media followers is plummeting
Reading Time: 2 min Over the past few years we’ve seen a slow decline in the value of having “followers” on social media, as the algorithms continue to shift to show content to all users as they see fit. YouTube, while it’s changing quickly, is an example of the old model. More often than not, videos are shown to […]
They don’t care about your hot take regarding TikTok
Reading Time: < 1 min I was on a call recently with a potential client, and we got pretty deep into what he was looking to accomplish. I sort of summarized the call by saying something like “We’ll sell you a website and marketing, but I know that you’re just buying phone calls.“ Most businesses don’t want to improve their […]
We are generators of the media
Reading Time: 2 min A few weeks ago, PJ Vogt interviewed Ezra Klein on the Search Engine podcast. It was a fascinating interview and I encourage you to give it a listen, but one concept that Ezra shared really stuck out to me — we are generators of the media. He said this on a podcast, and I’m repeating […]
Three things that Bluesky is doing right
Reading Time: 2 min Bluesky is a relatively new social media platform, and at first glance it looks a lot like Twitter. As laid out by Mike Masnick in a great article on Techdirt, Bluesky is doing some excellent things to solve some of the major problems with social media. Moderation First, their moderation system is incredibly customizable. They […]
Social media isn’t the problem
Reading Time: 2 min The last decade has seen a lot of concern over the effect of social media on teens. Most recently is the U.S. government attempting to pass KOSA (the “Kids Online Safety Act”), which is unlikely to actually help very much. While there are certainly some concerns to be dealt with, social media by teens is […]