Meaningful Interactions on Social Media

What’s a meaningful interaction?

A meaningful interaction is one shared between multiple people, with multiple opinions, that either arrives at a conclusion or agreement. It could be superficial or serious. In terms of media, meaningful interactions occur between family and friends on posts generated by them or funny memes.

Does Social Media Produce this?

Content made on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram usually creates meaningful interactions between friends or strangers, but it is different for each social media. For example, on Facebook, one wouldn’t comment on a stranger’s post or share a video from someone they don’t know unless the video was intended to be universally received. On Twitter, this is different. The atmosphere allows anyone to comment on or tag people without it being seen as strange or weird. The same is true for retweets and likes because most tweets are meant to be shared for comedic purposes. Other content includes news, celebrities, and pop culture. This being said, Twitter can be home to many meaningful threads and conversations shared between friends, fans, and strangers. Instagram has a lot of pages ranging from photography, food, travel, science, tv, and comedy. Therefore, Twitter is definitely the best medium for engaging users in meaningful content.These topics usually do not inspire meaningful interactions, rather they consist of relatable content.

In order for meaningful interactions on social media to be achieved, many people have to see the content and comment. If people are lurkers, which is essentially taking in content without producing your own, then there is not anything necessarily meaningful involved.

Efforts to make using Facebook “Time Well Spent”

In Facebook’s efforts to encourage more meaningful interaction, they have highlighted what changes will be made to the algorithm in order to accomplish this. Facebook’s newsfeed boss Adam Mosseri says that posts from friends and family will take more prominence over content from Facebook pages (Vogelstein). Posts with long comments will receive hierarchy over shorter comments, and shares of news articles will matter more than its popularity (Vogelstein). If Facebook determines this content as relevant to the individual user, then they will place them in the newsfeed.

This decision by Facebook is a step in the right direction. However, it is a baby step. The changes are good but I do not see a huge outcome or impact being made on Facebook’s behalf. I do not see this being a sufficient effort. Yes, putting posts that center around family and friends in one’s newsfeed can bring them closer to the “meaningful” interaction they hope to achieve, but social media like Facebook is far from having one. I think emphasizing posts with longer comments is a strong move because it will bring attention to that comment and potentially conjure more. However, there will still be ads in between your friends birthday celebrations, and fake news article clouding one’s judgement. Real meaningful interactions occur when posts and discussions feel accessible to everyone.

At the end of the day, Facebook is a platform that serves as a distraction. No matter what they or their users change, it is still social media that functions as an advertising venue. Their efforts should be focused on making meaningful interactions without the fake news and privacy leaks.

Work Cited

Vogelstein, Fred. “Facebook Tweaks Newsfeed to Favor Content from Friends, Family.” Wired, Conde Nast, 12 Jan. 2018, www.wired.com/story/facebook-tweaks-newsfeed-to-favor-content-from-friends-family/?mbid=BottomRelatedStories.