I read an article by Zeynep Tufekci (False Promise) in Wired (July 27, 2019) stating the Internet is a low-trust society where you are on guard all the time. I’m sure this wasn’t part of Sir Tim Berners-Lee dream.
A society is a group of people with a common goal. But if you no longer know what is real, and what is not on the Internet, we have a trust issue.
How can we trust the information we retrieve from the internet? Trust doesn’t come from people with a common goal, but a common life. We regain trust if we share a life. It’s the difference between society and community. A community is a group of people with a common life.
I don’t think Social Media, as it is, will ever be a community anymore. A digital common life builds around an idea or ideal, and merely being connected is no longer enough.
“A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea.” (Seth Godin, Tribes)
Choose wisely.