Eli Pariser, co-director of New Public and advocate for better digital spaces, dives into the lessons from 'slow social media.' He champions community-driven platforms like Vermont's Front Porch Forum that prioritize meaningful interactions over viral content. The conversation covers the importance of local engagement to combat disinformation, the role of local newspapers in fostering civic ties, and how careful digital design can enhance connectivity. Pariser emphasizes that with the right approach, social media can evolve into a valuable tool for communities.
Moderated spaces like Front Porch Forum highlight the potential of social media to foster positive engagement and community connection.
New Public advocates for user-centered design in digital spaces, aiming to prioritize public interest over profit-driven models for healthier interactions.
Deep dives
The Power of Community Moderation
Social media often faces criticism for fueling discord, but examples like Front Porch Forum demonstrate that moderated spaces can foster positive engagement. This local forum distinguishes itself by ensuring every post is reviewed by human moderators before going live, which curtails harmful interactions and nurtures a sense of accountability among users. Participants in this community report feeling more informed, civically engaged, and connected to their neighbors, highlighting the positive potential of thoughtfully managed online platforms. Such moderation serves as a model for reimagining social media as a community-building tool rather than a source of negativity.
Rethinking Social Media Design
The discontent with traditional social media platforms stems from their profit-driven models, often leading to a race to maximize engagement rather than enhance community. New Public seeks to shift this paradigm by focusing on user-centered design that prioritizes public interest. By employing a model akin to local newspapers, which emphasize community over advertising revenue, New Public envisions a framework where digital spaces better serve their users’ needs. This approach encourages a re-examination of existing platforms' design choices and their direct impact on user behavior and community dynamics.
Lessons from Front Porch Forum
Front Porch Forum operates differently from larger platforms like Nextdoor by avoiding aggressive growth strategies in favor of fostering genuine local connections. Its model emphasizes slow communication, allowing daily updates where users engage with their community thoughtfully. This method mitigates the rapid, often toxic exchanges found in other social media, providing a space where users can express opinions respectfully without descending into negativity. The structure of moderated discussions not only builds trust but also promotes a favorable perception of local interactions, contrasting sharply with the experiences on less moderated forums.
The Future of Digital Public Spaces
The conversation surrounding digital community frameworks raises crucial questions about the types of relationships we cultivate online. While platforms like Front Porch Forum showcase successful community-building through moderation and localized focus, the challenge remains in adapting these principles to broader social media contexts without sacrificing immediacy. There is a growing recognition of the need for diverse online spaces that cater to different interaction styles, echoing back to community roots of local newspapers that fulfilled various local needs. As new models emerge, there is hope that they will facilitate healthier interactions and reinvigorate public discourse in the digital age.
Though the current popular narrative about social media seems to be that it is harmful and has little or no redeeming value, the truth (which a lot of people know) is that it also has a lot of value, and the potential to be even better. A recent research report from New_Public finds some ideas on how to pursue that potential by looking at a niche, local social media site that moves a lot slower than the big networks, and this week we're joined by New_Public co-director Eli Pariser to discuss what useful lessons there might be to learn from "slow social media".
Read the report (pdf): https://newpublic.org/uploads/2024/07/Front-Porch-Forum-report-2.pdf
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