What's next for the social internet?

The BBC has just published a report on the social internet. The corporation’s royal charter is up for renewal in 2027 and discussions about whether or not to renew the licence fee agreement have started. Last month BBC Director-General Tim Davie gave a speech in which he mentioned the word “trust” 52 times. He argued the BBC should be an essential force for social cohesion in a world where media consumption is increasingly fragmented.

The BBC raised £3.7billion from the licence fee last year. But it needs to keep reinventing itself to stay relevant and avoid losing its primary income stream. Culture secretary Lisa Nandy has said the licence fee is unenforceable. We all know young people don’t watch telly. Two thirds of UK households subscribe to one or more streaming services, and this week a man won his licence fee court case claiming he doesn’t watch BBC channels.

Like all publishers (and, increasingly, major social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube), the BBC must jump through some hoops to maintain its place in the cultural universe. The BBC commissioned this report on the social internet specifically to identify ideas for future direction.

Here are five key findings in the report:

1.  Social channels are now broadcast

The major social media platforms bear more than a passing resemblance to the traditional broadcast media they aimed to provide an alternative to. As algorithms prioritise creators and influencers, regular users are less motivated to upload and share their own updates. Consumption becomes more passive – it’s about scrolling through other people’s content. TikTok isn’t about connecting with friends any more – instead we’re all watching an algorithmically curated “for you” feed.

2. User experience is deprioritised

People are finding their experience to be less and less rewarding as the larger platforms focus on monetisation, and moderation is rolled back (as on Facebook and X). They’re moving elsewhere to alternative communities and spaces like gaming and messaging apps. Ironically many of these offer the intimacy and sense of community that was once offered by older platforms. Larger social platforms like Facebook, Instagram and X are seen as increasingly “transactional”, “unsocial” and “antisocial”.

3. New walled gardens are in place

Facebook and Twitter (now X) were founded on sociality – they built their audiences on link-sharing to other platforms. This free flow of ideas and information was seen as essential for the growth of the social web. Not any more. Social platforms are increasingly turning into walled gardens: restricting outbound links to retain traffic, user data, and attention within their own ecosystems. This means some of their original appeal is lost, and users go elsewhere.

4. People seek bonfires

Instead of converging on a particular platform, people increasingly follow specific topics and interest groups. One interviewee calls these “bonfires”. This echoes a pattern that’s long existed in gaming: users gathering and chatting around a single game. We’re seeing a move from larger platforms to messaging apps (WhatsApp, Signal) and smaller sites like Discord, as well as increasing use of the messaging function on apps like Snapchat.

5. Social media is a social scaffold

In many parts of the social internet, especially gaming spaces, users find and connect with others in a way that is important to them and would not necessarily be possible offline. In this way, social media has a scaffolding and bonding effect. People interviewed in the report talked about experiencing social bonding through social media – and the social web’s impact on popular culture, especially TikTok.

Implications for the future

The report highlights gaming, the fediverse (decentralized social networks) and AI as three important areas of growth and influence. It cites Discord as an example of a hybrid social platform / gaming space where people are coming together in a new way.

While the report repeats familiar concerns about privacy, mental health and algorithmic manipulation, it stresses the ongoing importance of the social internet and the belief that public service media organisations like the BBC have an important role to play. The ability to operate quickly and with agility across “an archipelago of interconnected spaces” is essential. Relevance, authenticity, speaking the same cultural language (and not appearing too desperate!) are key.

“New infrastructures for public debate are necessary […] commercially-run social platforms tend towards polarisation and bad-faith actors […] public service organisations could support and design alternatives.” (p 36)

Recent initiatives to connect with people on the social internet include BBC Creator Lab which provides opportunities for selected TikTok creators to work on BBC TV programmes. Remote Interaction Guidelines and the Human Values Framework (designed with NESTA) give guidance on designing positive spaces for online collaboration. There is a focus on enabling clips from broadcast programmes to become social objects to be shared, remixed and replayed.

The online town square

“Public value” is neglected as it’s difficult to quantify, says the report.  It’s hard to measure the success of social content and interactions across the social internet. Brands, organisations and social platforms have their own sets of priorities which are often at cross-purposes with the needs of people who are usually there to connect, learn or be entertained.

In my house, we pay £5.99 a month for Netflix and £8.99 a month for Amazon Prime, on top of the BBC licence fee (£174.50 annually). But last year alone we spent an additional £464 renting Amazon movies or box sets. Lately, we’ve been experimenting with sticking to pure BBC iPlayer, watching Peaky Blinders, What It Feels Like for a Girl and Louis Theroux – The Settlers. All very different, but all excellent programmes. If we’d wanted to watch a film, we could have seen anything from Triangle of Sadness to La La Land to Saltburn. It’s not bad value for money, especially with a load of radio stations and 24/7 news coverage thrown in.

Despite the BBC’s flaws, I agree with Tim Davie. We’re very lucky to have a public service broadcaster that does its best in a complex and often hostile environment. I’m looking forward to seeing how the recommendations of this report manifest as effective outreach on the social internet. One thing’s clear, we can’t leave default ownership of the public “town square” to Elon Musk!

Thanks Ian Forrester for sharing this report.

Photo by Creative Christians on Unsplash

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