Have you ever found yourself feeling like "social" media is actually the complete opposite? Not only does the content on it often cause depression and anxiety, but there's a plethora of fake news, data leaks, and advertisers clamoring for attention. The EU's GDPR is making things more complicated all around, and people are starting to realize the value of their data.
Social media is in a tight spot. Major platforms are struggling to retain their younger audiences, and advertisers are wasting budgets thanks to Gen-Z's intolerance for ads (82 percent of them skip ads, and more than half use ad blockers).
What was once everyone's favorite pastime has become tarnished, cluttered, noisy, and just a little antisocial. Several blockchain companies are looking to tackle the problem. (In fact, tons of wannabe Facebooks and Instagrams are cropping up like weeds).
The platform that will rise to the top in the blockchain social media race remains to be seen. But whichever one does, it should have the ability to change social media in the following ways:
Fix the Ad Issue
We've heard about this problem a few times, as well as how blockchain can fix the broken advertising space. Any social media platform hoping to emerge victorious in Web 3.0 will need to provide a solution in which users can control how much – or how little – advertising they see.
Advertisers shouldn't have to waste money being switched off by content blockers. And they won't fall victim to advertising fraud that costs the industry billions of dollars every year. Users also won't have to grind their teeth filtering through swathes of content they don't want to see – and they'll get rewarded for watching ads if they want to.
Says Melanie Mohr, CEO and Founder of yeay, "Younger audiences want a hyper-personalized experience but not at the expense of privacy. We created a social space where people can have instant and autonomous relationships with the brands they love, collaboratively create cool content – and get rewarded for doing so. There is no overload of adverts – only authentic user-generated content by teens for teens."
Give Users Their Privacy Back
One of the blockchain's greatest qualities is that it can give people back their privacy and anonymity. Networks like Sapien and Minds allow users to be anonymous if they want to be. They can't be tracked, traced or censored. In countries where censorship is an issue, such as China, Turkey, or North Korea, social networks are often blocked. Decentralized platforms like these ensure that no one can block access to content.
Rewarding Artists for Quality Content
In many cases, content creators see very little compensation for the hard work they put in. Networks like YouTube only pay out when view numbers are huge, and even then, the end content creators see very little. Platforms like Verasity cut out the middlemen and ensure that for every like and view, the creator is rewarded instantly through smart contracts.
Sapien and Minds also ensure that content is rewarded based on its popularity. So instead of just likes and views, people get actual compensation, incentivizing them to create higher-quality content.
Fighting Fake News
Getting users to rate content is one way of weeding out poor quality, but it may not prevent fake news. Other platforms are taking an even more proactive approach using the blockchain's ability to verify data sources and content authenticity. Prover, for example, is built on the Ethereum blockchain to verify content creators and kick fake news to the curb.
Blockchain technology is changing social media for the better and has the potential to free the space from many of its current woes. As Mohr affirms, "Make no mistake that blockchain is going to make an impact and it has so much potential as a force for good. It can help to reverse some of the negative effects of social technology – particularly when it comes to issues around privacy, control and the commercialization of people's data."