Musk Buying Twitter Part II

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Jan 30, 2020
1,850
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No one has really successfully figured out how to capture the 18-35 demographic long term. There's boat loads of money and research that goes into it with really only moderate success.

All the platforms want them, but there's not significant loyalty to any of them beyond a certain amount of time. What's popular today will not be so tomorrow and it changes faster than any single platform can really keep up. Some do better than others with the shifts.
 
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avail

Can't Leave
Oct 13, 2015
351
2,915
Michigan
My 16 year old daughter and all her friends use discord almost exclusively, and only use email because they are forced to for handing in schoolwork and talking to teachers. Most of them aren't on facebook "with their moms and aunts" and at least half of them don't even know what twitter is. WhatsApp is what grandpas and corporate middle managers use to send outdated memes.

Everyone of all ages heavily use YouTube, it's very popular with 35-45 year olds and kids 5-15, youtube live streaming especially.
Yeah, kids hate email now. They will use it for business only, rarely for social interaction. Even texting is on the wane.

But not only them. I'm a boomer, but there are many in my age group, and a little younger, who don't like email or even talking on the (evil) telephone, a/k/a livestream audio...LOL I have a few friends who totally ignore all manner of communication, except for FB messenger.

One time I had to work out the details of a camping outing with one of them. We HAD to actually talk. Did he call? No, he used FB video messenger. Things have changed a lot, and quickly.
 
who don't like email or even talking on the (evil) telephone, a/k/a livestream audio...LOL I have a few friends who totally ignore all manner of communication, except for FB messenger.
We are in an age of too much communication. We expect instant responses to our phone calls, and texts. And, lets just admit it that we don't really want to respond to some people. I miss that days of not having a cell phone, just out riding my bike with no instant contact with the world. No tethers to keep me grounded. Just a land line with an answering machine that I would ignore for a few weeks. My family had no idea if I was dead or alive for months at a time in college. Hell, I went to Europe for several weeks with no phone contact at all with family. I know several very wealthy men and women who refuse to carry a cell. They just do their own thing without the constant worry with other people going on.
In the summers I barely carry a phone any more. It's kind of nice... liberating even.

Edit: it seems like the younger folks are disengaging a bit too... Is Gen Z bringing flip phones back? - https://mashable.com/article/gen-z-flip-phones-trend
Flip phones, so that they can call and text, but get a break from social media all together. But, this doesn't mean that they are deleting accounts and leaving social media.
 

Briar Tuck

Lifer
Nov 29, 2022
1,109
5,737
Oregon coast
I have a few friends who totally ignore all manner of communication, except for FB messenger.

One time I had to work out the details of a camping outing with one of them. We HAD to actually talk. Did he call? No, he used FB video messenger. Things have changed a lot, and quickly.
That's exactly the situation with my band that finally forced me to get a FB account. They insist on using FB messenger for all communication and they would have discussions and make decisions in the group chat there, so I had to make an account to stay informed and have any input. I'm in my mid fifties and I'm the youngest guy in the band.
 

Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
4,759
13,783
Humansville Missouri
Last night my Amish renter called me.

Even Old Order Amish communities like his, isolated as they are from the outside world, have a need to communicate with the rest of us.

So the Amish set up open air telephone booths, with multiple businesses on each phone, out beside gravel roads. If I want to call him I call that telephone and there’s a bunch of options to leave messages for whichever business I want.
And they check the phone, and call back. Since it’s outside they don’t get chatty.:)

And the Amish are still prolific users of the post office at Dunnegan.

They are forbidden any kind of internet, phone, television, or radio listening except for farm market reports and weather.

And they all get their hair cut at home, so there’s no barber shop gossip.

So how do they get news?

The local newspaper and perhaps Amish newspapers. But never tabloid newspapers or popular magazines.


Each Amish community sets it’s own rules, but ours still tries to insulate it’s members from the lies, sorrow, and misery of the old sin cussed world.

I think one of their main sources of communication between each other is children carrying notes or bearing messages.

One good thing, none of them will ever lose billions trying to promote free speech.
 
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telescopes

Pipe Dreamer and Star Gazer
That's exactly the situation with my band that finally forced me to get a FB account. They insist on using FB messenger for all communication and they would have discussions and make decisions in the group chat there, so I had to make an account to stay informed and have any input. I'm in my mid fifties and I'm the youngest guy in the band.
I so dislike apps for messaging. When traveling, I am forced to use WhatsApp because so many of the guides use it. I dislike Facebook messenger as well. For me, a simple text, short and sweet, is more than enough. No filters, no funny faces, no distortions...
 

sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,621
44,832
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
To an extent, I agree, but I think this may miss the forest for the trees. This model of both attracting ad revenue and collecting consumer data simultaneously by feeding into people's natural narcissism and relative isolation from each other is simply too powerful and profitable a platform to just die off like a consumer fad, at least not without a powerful change in the laws or culture at large. Social media platforms are like a license to not only print money, but to cultivate perfect consumers. The only real threat to the big players in the social media landscapes hasn't been waning relevance, but just comical amounts of bungling from the vain and eccentric "leadership" of its "genius" CEOs.
There's also the reality of evolution in terms of platform technology and design. Who remembers Myspace?

I signed up for Facebook after the production I was working on was suddenly shut down due to funding problems and a group formed on FB to inform us of progress rectifying the situation. Back then you could go several levels down into the interface and turn off much of the data collection options, which I did. You can't really do that now. That was 15 years back, and once we got up and running, I spent no more time there. If Facebook were to disappear it would be a huge boon. Instead, it's being relegated to an older population as new platforms become available.

The model for marketing people as commodities to businesses, selling an audience to advertisers, is a lot older. It's been the basis for every major broadcasting medium from radio to TV to now. It's the basis for this forum.

What is pretty awful is the way in which social media has succeeded insinuating itself into every aspect of human existence. A big part is its appeal is to narcissism, everyone is their own star and can share all their waking moments with an audience, but more to the point, is also its ability to sell ice cubes to eskimos. There's almost no effort to promoting all manner of made up stuff that is instantly uncritically believed by a gullible public that deludes itself on its level of critical thinking, common sense, and judgement. Every drooling horse's ass thinks he's Solomon. So do the other drooling horse's asses.

Would H. L Mencken be the least surprised? Maybe at just how right he was. Here's a prescient quote from September 18 1926, from one of his columns for the Baltimore Sun. Specifics included so that those of you who actually verify before accepting something as legitimate, can do that.

"No one in this world, so far as I know--and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me--has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby. The mistake that is made always runs the other way. Because the plain people are able to speak and understand, and even, in many cases, to read and write, it is assumed that they have ideas in their heads, and an appetite for more. This assumption is folly."

Boy is THAT the truth. And it's the basis for why social media is such a money maker for its owners. And it explains a lot about why things are as contentious and rotten as they are in a lot of areas. Riling up people makes them come back for more and that means making tons of money. What's more important than making tons of money?

P. T. Barnum put it more bluntly: There's a sucker born every minute.

Powerful money generating technologies have been rolled out and rolled over the great masses of plain people.
 

georged

Lifer
Mar 7, 2013
5,491
13,920
The platform itself is a distinction without a difference.

The issue is---or should be---entire generations growing up in a limbic system negative feedback loop, and the permanent biological changes (altered brain development) caused by it.

Think crack baby writ large.

The endless rationalization and denial is astonishing.
 

telescopes

Pipe Dreamer and Star Gazer
If and when I use social media platforms, it is only to disseminate information to family and friends at the same time I rarely post anything and the post I do make are quickly forgotten and never checked up on. if most of my family and friends were like myself, these platforms would quickly vanish. 😉
 

avail

Can't Leave
Oct 13, 2015
351
2,915
Michigan
That's exactly the situation with my band that finally forced me to get a FB account. They insist on using FB messenger for all communication and they would have discussions and make decisions in the group chat there, so I had to make an account to stay informed and have any input. I'm in my mid fifties and I'm the youngest guy in the band.
For a while I was playing along with the FB crowd. But I got tired of the unwanted news/information, birthdays, check-ins, "here I am a the grocery store", kind of information. Then I started getting contacts from people I knew in high school and college. Then when they started censoring, etc., I was fed up and scrubbed everything, took a while. Now I'll message, maybe use marketplace, and that does it, and I may cut that, too.
 
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Briar Tuck

Lifer
Nov 29, 2022
1,109
5,737
Oregon coast
For a while I was playing along with the FB crowd. But I got tired of the unwanted news/information, birthdays, check-ins, "here I am a the grocery store", kind of information. Then I started getting contacts from people I knew in high school and college. Then when they started censoring, etc., I was fed up and scrubbed everything, took a while. Now I'll message, maybe use marketplace, and that does it, and I may cut that, too.
I've had a couple of friends over the years try to push me to use FB to keep in touch, but I declined. One of my oldest friends, someone I'd be inclined to keep in touch with, uses FB pretty much exclusively, so we don't really keep in touch. Aside from using it for messaging my bandmates, I don't use it at all, and I don't even use my real name for the account. If I could rid myself of it completely I would.
 
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sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,621
44,832
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
I so dislike apps for messaging. When traveling, I am forced to use WhatsApp because so many of the guides use it. I dislike Facebook messenger as well. For me, a simple text, short and sweet, is more than enough. No filters, no funny faces, no distortions...
I use Linked In on occasion for professional purposes. I've gotten 4 very good assignments, totaling about 2 1/2 years of work, from using that site when things were slow. I've also been able to help connect people to job openings. Every now and then I'll look to stay abreast of what's being done in the fields of animation and visual effects, and to maintain visibility in that community.

It's quite different from when I first got a notice from them that I had been given an account back in late 2002. There literally was no site, just a plaque. Eventually there was a site, but no artists, mostly corporate professionals, and that was very interesting to encounter other business cultures. Now it has a very wide and deep forum for animation, visual effects and other film and TV related work. Unfortunately, with the increased population there has also been an increase in chicanery by some of the people who sign up, but Linked In has been pretty good about speedily getting rid of them

Once in a long while I've checked out IMDB since I was told that out they had created an account for me I in the early '90's. I liked the earlier site, which was less about monetization and more about sharing career credits. So I very rarely visit these days.

These sorts of focused career networking sites can be very beneficial.
 
Jan 30, 2020
1,850
6,086
New Jersey
I use Linked In on occasion for professional purposes. I've gotten 4 very good assignments, totaling about 2 1/2 years of work, from using that site when things were slow. I've also been able to help connect people to job openings. Every now and then I'll look to stay abreast of what's being done in the fields of animation and visual effects, and to maintain visibility in that community.

It's quite different from when I first got a notice from them that I had been given an account back in late 2002. There literally was no site, just a plaque. Eventually there was a site, but no artists, mostly corporate professionals, and that was very interesting to encounter other business cultures. Now it has a very wide and deep forum for animation, visual effects and other film and TV related work. Unfortunately, with the increased population there has also been an increase in chicanery by some of the people who sign up, but Linked In has been pretty good about speedily getting rid of them

Once in a long while I've checked out IMDB since I was told that out they had created an account for me I in the early '90's. I liked the earlier site, which was less about monetization and more about sharing career credits. So I very rarely visit these days.

These sorts of focused career networking sites can be very beneficial.
IMDb pro accounts are still extremely useful. As long as various contact information is kept up to date, it’s often a first stop for me and my needs.
 
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Briar Tuck

Lifer
Nov 29, 2022
1,109
5,737
Oregon coast
I use Linked In on occasion for professional purposes. I've gotten 4 very good assignments, totaling about 2 1/2 years of work, from using that site when things were slow. I've also been able to help connect people to job openings. Every now and then I'll look to stay abreast of what's being done in the fields of animation and visual effects, and to maintain visibility in that community.

It's quite different from when I first got a notice from them that I had been given an account back in late 2002. There literally was no site, just a plaque. Eventually there was a site, but no artists, mostly corporate professionals, and that was very interesting to encounter other business cultures. Now it has a very wide and deep forum for animation, visual effects and other film and TV related work. Unfortunately, with the increased population there has also been an increase in chicanery by some of the people who sign up, but Linked In has been pretty good about speedily getting rid of them

Once in a long while I've checked out IMDB since I was told that out they had created an account for me I in the early '90's. I liked the earlier site, which was less about monetization and more about sharing career credits. So I very rarely visit these days.

These sorts of focused career networking sites can be very beneficial.
I used my LinkedIn account when I was working, and it was indeed very helpful and almost a necessity for anyone working in IT. Once I retired I dropped it like a bad habit.
 

K.E. Powell

Can't Leave
Aug 20, 2022
493
1,781
37
West Virginia
I so dislike apps for messaging. When traveling, I am forced to use WhatsApp because so many of the guides use it. I dislike Facebook messenger as well. For me, a simple text, short and sweet, is more than enough. No filters, no funny faces, no distortions...
I'm with you on that one. I use FB messenger because my friends insist on it, which is beyond me. A group text works just as well. FB messenger also guarantees you're going to get ad bombed with whatever stupid stuff the group wants to talk about. I don't get the appeal, but alas, if I want to keep tabs on D&D game night, I gotta have FB messenger. Democracy, right?
 

K.E. Powell

Can't Leave
Aug 20, 2022
493
1,781
37
West Virginia
As for what young folks are using, I mean, yea, they are using the likes of TikTok and other social media platforms more. But it's pretty uncommon to find one without a Facebook profile. They may not use it much, but they have one. And as another person pointed out, a lot of these apps are owned by the same handful of companies (e.g. Instagram and Facebook are both owned by Meta).

In other words, both sides of this argument are right. Young folks like other social media more and use it more, but FB is still widely used by the young in some form or another. FB has nearly 3 billion accounts on its platform. Sure, a lot are business pages or sock puppet accounts, etc., but that is still a massive user base.

But again, to reiterate: the point is to collect data in order to create a more dedicated and more easily manipulated consumer base, regardless of the age group. In that regard, FB is still a powerhouse.
 
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Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
4,759
13,783
Humansville Missouri
Just when it couldn’t possibly get worse for Twitter:

—-
Jan. 4, 2022 Washington Post

Records of 235 million Twitter accounts and the email addresses used to register them have been posted to an online hacking forum, setting the stage for anonymous handles to be linked to real-world identities.

That poses threats of exposure, arrest or violence against people who used Twitter to criticize governments or powerful individuals, and it could open up others to extortion, security experts said. Hackers could also use the email addresses to attempt to reset passwords and take control of accounts, especially those not protected by two-factor authentication.

“This database is going to be used by hackers, political hacktivists and of course governments to harm our privacy even further,” said Alon Gal, co-founder of the Israeli security company Hudson Rock, who spotted the posting on a popular underground marketplace.

The records were probably compiled in late 2021, using a flaw in Twitter’s system that allowed outsiders who already had an email address or phone number to find any account that had shared that information with Twitter. Those lookups could be automated to check an unlimited list of emails or phone numbers.
—-

It will be a long time before another social media company trades for megabucks, a long, long time for sure.