I used to believe that people didn’t like certain social media outlets because of the features and mechanisms of the user interface, the APIs behind, but also the vision of platform leadership. As I closely monitor the recent shift in social media across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, as well as newer players like Bluesky and Mastodon, I realize this is more about ideological isolation than it is anything technical or even business. The ideological isolation across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LInkedIn, Blue Sky, and Mastodon should be studied and I feel reflects wider offline ideological isolation and information sharing (or lack thereof).
While studying folks on Facebook from where I grew up in the Pacific Northwest you can see how social media isolation has given rise to Trump’s second term. I don’t have many folks left from the conservative side of things, but still have plenty of people who are still simmering in that world-so I study the comments on their thread to reveal how informationally isolated and spoon fed their friends (many of who I know personally) are from an information perspective. They don’t see anything else happening. What is super fascinating is that on LinkedIn you can see the same when it comes to artificial intelligence, where you have a lot of people who believe in the technology, and all they are seeing is more people who believe in AI. They don’t see anything else happening. In both cases, it is just the world they see and know, and anything to the contrary is just noise that they don’t have to tune into or believe.
As a conservative, if you are on Facebook, you believe what Trump and Musk are doing is about making the government more efficient. As an investor or technologist, if you are on LinkedIn, you believe that artificial intelligence is taking over and being used by everyone. Contrasting those world views you see people on Mastodon who are against everything AI, and skeptical of anything coming out of Silicon Valley. You see more of a mix on Bluesky, but you also see a lot of people across the two worlds and concerned about what is happening in government, but AI could go either way, be good or bad for the world. I’ve even seen a few people complain about the tone of people on Mastodon via LinkedIn, which I think is healthy, because at least they are being exposed to outside ideas, even if they don’t agree with them.
I am fully aware that I too am isolated. I live in NYC, work in the tech sector, and span across all of these networks. I have isolated myself from many of the conservative people I grew up with. However, I read books, eat at restaurants, and live in a diverse range of ethnicities, religions, and languages. I purposely avoid the isolation that comes with my upbringing, but also my social class. I intentionally read books out of my comfort zone. I also carefully study and think about what I read posted on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Bluesky, and Mastodon. I compare it with what I’ve read in books. I search beyond these social networks for information and expertise that challenges or confirms what I am reading and seeing. All of this is essential to be able to see through what is happening right now in Washington DC and Silicon Valley, revealing just how much we are all insulated and isolated from each other.
