Problems with social media platforms

Format differences between different types of platforms feel a bit frustrating at times, when carefully prepared images get heavily compressed, and anything reminiscent of a link gets rewritten to a redirector URL. Even regular blog posts often stop getting visibility when platforms optimize for keeping people inside of their silos. 😓

Somehow what used to be a key way for sharing information about new discovered things, turned into locked doors that keep people inside of their ecosystems (while reducing content visibility of almost anything beyond their platform’s direct control). Platforms are structurally different from each other, even when they compete with each other (with a similar set of features).

A whole other problem are in-app browsers, such as what Facebook is doing for tracking everything people do when they visit 3rd party websites via links from the Facebook platform. That extends the platform vendor control beyond the safety protections offered by traditional web browsers, reducing privacy and safety.