I’ve been thinking about Australia’s social media ban. If you missed it, the policy bans login-required platforms (like Instagram or TikTok, but not YouTube).
I haven’t dug deep into the details or fully challenged my thoughts yet, but I think I generally agree with the idea. Social media can cause too much harm, and as long as we lack the education to teach teens how to navigate its toxicity, a ban feels like a solid approach (again, I haven't challenged my perspective yet).
It’s also a more effective solution than relying on parents to enforce rules individually. With a blanket ban, there’s no FOMO because no one’s using it. You can't be marginalized, if no one uses it in the first place.
But that got me thinking: is social media itself the problem? It might be, especially if two things are true: the service is free, and the service has a public feed. The first one is obvious — if your business model is ad-driven, you’re incentivized to maximize engagement: More time spent equals more ad revenue, so the algorithms are naturally biased for addiction.
The second point is where it gets more interesting. I’ve taken plenty of social media breaks (I'm on one right now), and not once did I miss the platforms themselves. What I missed were the interactions, comments, conversations, and seeing what friends were up to. Never did I miss what a random influencer had to say who optimizes for engagement.
There's one platform I do miss. Path. Path had it all figured out, but I believe was ahead of its time: private, limited to 150 friends. That might seem restrictive, but do you even care about 150 people’s lives?
I care about maybe 50 at most. Sure, I’d occasionally like to check in on acquaintances, but do I need to follow them for that?
The perfect social network would be private, user-funded (one user should be able to pay for their network), and stripped of public profiles. No likes, shares, or follower counts, just comments. If you want to engage, you have to write something meaningful. Ideally, it’d be non-anonymous; after all, this is supposed to be social, and you’d connect with people you actually know. (I am not completely sure about this one; in theory, this kind of network could work for tightly-knit groups with shared interests, like a gaming clan you interact with daily, but where no one really knows who’s who.)
Unfortunately, I don’t think such a network will ever exist. It’s nearly impossible to monetize, so if it’s not someone who does it for non-profit, it’s DOA.
The closest thing to my ideal network right now is a private Discord server with friends. It’s the app I use most, right after Safari. It’s missing a timeline-style feature to be closer to Path, but in terms of vibe, it’s as close as it gets.
But maybe the real answer is that social media isn’t broken. It’s just plain unnecessary. Perhaps it was doomed from the start.