I notice this happening on multiple social media sites, and it always contributes to the death of social networks:
1. Progressives tend to be early adopters because they usually create culture
2. Reactionaries tend to be late adopters because they usually consume culture
3. Reactionaries then try to seize power because the culture isn't to their liking
4. Progressives leave because they want to create culture
5. Then reactionaries leave because no culture is being created
Ex: see screenshot.
What's old is new again. What's happening to Twitter right now already happened to Digg.
Remember the Digg Patriots?
Their attempt to take control of the front page resulted in Digg's doom.
And it's also happening to Facebook. No one goes to Facebook anymore for fresh culture.
When the culture of social media dies, so does the social network.
Of course, what I find *more* fascinating is that the people who own social networks and news publications are almost never progressive.
But they know very well to position their sites as a destination for progressivism -- because progressives create the content people want to see.
A good example is Vice Magazine.
The folks who founded it are the most extreme right wing jerks you'll ever meet.
I mean, Vice co-founder Gavin McInnes also founded the Proud Boys.
As others have pointed out, the gentrification of social networks echoes the gentrification of real life neighbourhoods too.
But it happens a lot quicker.
Notice that right now on Twitter, progressives are kicking up a fuss.
They don't want to leave.
This is their neighbourhood.
But they'll have to leave -- they don't own Twitter. They've always been renters. The only reason you were ever around was to make the place desirable.
And now you're being evicted!
What I want folks of the #TwitterMigration to consider:
When you join Mastodon, be careful about your role in the potential gentrification of this social network!
I say this because I'm noticing more and more high status folk making this their home.
That's fine.
But before you came, this place had a culture -- a very real and vibrant one.
And now that you're here, other high status people are sure to follow -- those people will try to seize this space!
If you want your social media neighbourhood to resist gentrification, you could make it harder for the gentrifiers through one unique trick:
Decentralization!
Specifically by:
1. Creating accounts on small instances.
2. Self-hosting your own instances.
3. Connecting with encrypted peer-to-peer messengers
4. Creating communities built on open protocols -- not platforms
Reactionaries can gentrify one space. They can't gentrify all of them!
Chris Trottier
geolaw