Social Media Landscape: Introduction Podcast Transcript

From hype cycles to fake news, it's hard to find what's real on social media.  Yet we spend much of our lives getting our news and interacting with one another on networks that know an enormous amount about us, while we know virtually nothing about them.  Breaking the Feed pulls back the curtain and explores some of the most pressing issues including privacy, abuse, misinformation, and other harms.  Our hosts Taryn Ward and Steven Jones, walk through these issues and move beyond the headlines.

Taryn Ward:  Hi, I'm Taryn Ward.

Steven Jones:  And I'm Steven Jones.

Taryn Ward:  And this is Breaking the Feed: Social Media, Beyond the Headlines.

Steve Jones:  We're taking a closer look at the core issues around social media beginning with examining the existing social media landscape to better understand the role that social media plays in our everyday lives and in society.

Taryn Ward:  This episode will outline this series and briefly describe what you can expect. But first, we'll begin as we do with the question. Why should we care about the existing social media landscape anyway, given the amount of time so many of us spend on social media, whether professionally or personally, whether LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat or TikTok, the influence that has on our lives is undeniable. Even for people who don't use social media at all, this is how the vast majority of the population consumes content and we're a growing number of people receive their news and information. Social media has influenced with growing intensity, not only how we spend our time online and engage with each other virtually, but how we view and interact with the world more broadly.

Steve Jones:  We've all seen the headlines, some of this on the social media platforms themselves about social media, and most of these articles barely scratched the surface. And a closer look at these networks is long overdue.

Taryn Ward:  We chose to start by looking at the existing social media landscape. So as we move forward and explore issues around privacy, mental health, mis- and disinformation and freedom of expression, we're all starting with the same understanding of what's out there and how it's all evolved. But we also chose to start here because it's where we started our research into social media. Three years ago, before we founded our own social media network, we started by taking a closer look at what's out there already. More than that it was the existing offerings and an understanding that they're unlikely to change that prompted us to explore the possibility of offering an alternative in the first place. Although we won't drag you through the months of research we did in this direction, we've pulled out some highlights. 

Steve Jones:  To that end, we've divided the series into four sections. First, we'll look at the history of social media networks, and tracing the development from the earliest internet socials to the introduction of smartphones. And finally, how the introduction of TikTok shifted the landscape. Next, we'll look at the rise and fall of several social media empires from AOL Instant Messenger and MySpace to Clubhouse and the potential decline of Meta and Twitter, before turning to examine some of the new social media offerings. Finally, we'll look at the potential for growth and what might be next.

Taryn Ward:  We'll always provide a full transcript of our episodes with references on our website. You can find this and more information about us at TheBrightApp.com

Steve Jones:  Until next time, I'm Steven Jones.

Taryn Ward:  And I'm Taryn Ward.

Steve Jones:  Thank you for joining us for Breaking the Feed: Social Media, Beyond the Headlines.