The “perfect” Social Media Network

There is no such thing as of now but this is what it’d look like

[Disclaimer: This is just a concept. Or as I like to call it “a product of a thought experiment”.]

Personalized filters: This feature is one that is very near and dear to my heart. How many times has it happened that my supposed friends have spammed me with baby photos, ridiculous news stories (that turned out to be “not true”) or stupid buzzfeed quizzes? I’m sure you can relate to this struggle. We all have to deal with it. With a personalized filter option however, you could specify certain keywords so that posts which contain them won’t show up in your feed. Kind of like a parental control feature just for things that you deem boring, dumb or simply put “not worth your time”.

Muting: the ability to mute certain individuals. Just like Twitter implemented it. Everyone has at least a couple of friends or relatives that they like on a personal level but just don’t actually care about the posts that they share or post. With this feature you could just mute them without the need of “unfriending/unfollowing” them.

Like-Dislike functionality: this may seem like a total no-brainer but apparently none of the big social media platforms seem to understand it. One of the main reasons why I hold Youtube and Reddit in such high regard is because both imbue the user with the power to openly share their opinion through means of a like/dislike (upvote/downvote). While both are still simulacra in the classical sense at least they are realistic, unlike many other social media platforms where the only thing you can do is to like or upvote content. Wow, what a choice:

Customization: This is a big one. Especially if you consider how uncustomizable most social media platforms are. Facebook is blue and will remain so simply because Mark Zuckerberg is colorblind (this isn’t meant as an ad hominem joke, it’s the truth). Twitter on the other hand let’s you choose a primary theme color from a small color palette. It’s far from perfect but at least it’s a step in the right direction.

On a side note: If you consider that in the near future most laptops and PC monitors will implement OLED screens, customization will become even more relevant since darker colors will literally equate to saving actual money (http://www.greenbot.com/article/2834583/how-much-power-does-a-black-interface-really-save-on-amoled-displays.html). Another aspect of customization that is currently underrepresented in the social media landscape is the grid-like layout where you can move certain parts of your profile page and rearrange them to your liking. (Kind of like Android widgets)

Social aspects:

The Anonymity-Privacy duality: Most people get these two mixed up but they are very different concepts. In a nutshell this equation of mine tends to perfectly describe their relationship to one another:

As is apparent from the formula above it’s not a good idea to provide too much of both. However, I do believe that privacy should be the golden standard and as such it shouldn’t be impeded in any way, shape or form. Mark Zuckerberg may not agree with this idea but then again, he has his own agenda. Anonymity on the other hand should be encouraged but with certain boundaries set in place. Everyone should be urged to create accounts under their actual names (as part of the terms of service) under the condition that an anonymity feature is implemented. In other words: a feature that allows the user to post or comment without revealing their identity (this may seem contradictory to the aforementioned proposal at first glance but with the following additional features it’ll make sense). Furthermore, to improve the overall quality of anonymous posts there should be an option to report users who repeatedly post “inflammatory or hateful content” with an additional striking system that will display how many warnings a user has received, right on their actual profile page (kind of like a badge of shame). This way people will try to avoid posting anything that might negatively impact their public image. Should someone post inflammatory or hateful content repeatedly in spite of the aforementioned warnings their account will be suspended. Below is a more detailed description of the actual modus operandi:

Every time when someone reports an account for inappropriate posts (anonymous or not) the account in question will get 1 strike that will be visible on their profile page (on both, the regular and the anonymous account). The accumulation of 3 consecutive strikes will result in a temporary ban. Every strike report will be reviewed by a moderator before the actual strike is awarded. Furthermore, the act of falsely reporting another account may result in a warning (or strike) for the accuser.

In Memoriam - functionality: What I mean by that is a feature that enables close ones to “deactivate” accounts of deceased relatives. Not really deleting their account but rather disabling the login for that particular account and changing the profile status to In Memoriam, so that the profile appears in a separate, dedicated list. Everybody who had the person in their friends list will be notified since the person will move from their friends list to the In Memoriam section.

Let’s be honest, no one likes to ponder about death or it’s implications but that doesn’t change the fact that people die. Every time a relative or close friend dies you have to ask yourself “should I unfollow/unfriend this person?” after all it’s not like they’re going to post anything new or interact with you anymore “but wouldn’t it be disrespectful/rude?”. Well, with the implementation of this feature we could resolve these types of ethical dilemmas once and for all. With that being said this feature will become more important as time progresses. Mark my words.

Additional, self-explanatory features include: cross browser compatibility, integration of already established social networks (this will make the transition much easier for the user) and last but not least simplicity (in order to minimize the traffic and load time while simultaneously increasing the “ease of use”).

Have a nice day.

Addendum: I know what you’re thinking right now: “Well, coming up with an idea is the easy part. Why don’t you build/create it if it’s that perfect?” As a matter of fact I have created such a social Media platform* about a year ago as part of an experiment. Unfortunately I had to cancel the project because my server couldn’t handle the incoming traffic. After just one week I had already tens of thousands of users which posed a couple of upscaling issues that I simply couldn’t resolve on my own. Keep in mind that it was a solo project, so I decided to just let it go. It was fun while it lasted and judging by the feedback that I received it wasn’t in vain.

*with the exception of a few features that I’ve came up with more recently.