Can the internet still bring the world closer?

Connecting the world and maybe causing a nuclear way in the near future. Image courtesy: http://bit.ly/2Ds7pQl

Or has Facebook ruined that dream forever.

Facebook says that it’s goal is to bring the world closer together. But we’re realizing that instead it’s driving us further apart. By showing more content that reinforces our thoughts instead of challenging them, by feeding our own vanity, by connecting us with people based on existing relationships rather than interests, Facebook has ensured that we’re further receding into our own cocoons rather than connecting with new and diverse people.

In the last 5 years, the amount of content created has increased to a great extent. But have the ways to explore this content grown at the same pace?

Consider Instagram

A see of content is created everyday — travel bloggers post about new places to visit, cyclists post about new routes, places to visit. There are lot of interesting use cases for connecting people — I could connect with fellow cyclists, I could connect with fellow musicians, I could discover new places to travel. And yet this is what my Instagram discover tab looks like.

Insta algo — show funny videos and hot women!

The lack of discovery in Instagram has led to the rise of content aggregators who help individual creators reach more users and help users get quality content at one place. If you spent time creating writing articles on the web — for example “Tops 10 things to see in Mumbai” — search would drive users to your website and you would get users(& possibly revenue). And you would have helped users find the top 10 things to do in Mumbai. On Instagram, all this content is just sitting there in an S3 storage, wasting away.

Example of Snap Maps:

SnapMaps — find things happening around you

SnapChat has done a few things to get around the discovery problem — Introduction of SnapMaps and an Instagram style discover section are chief among them. A map visualization is a great way to find things happening around you.

And lastly we come to discovery on the Playstore.

A huge number of new apps were published to the playstore in 2017. Developers spend a lot of time and energy in creating and maintaining each app. And yet beyond search there is no good way of acquiring users. To add to it each app consumes on avg 8mb data to install and has abysmal retention.

Only recently has the Playstore actively started creating new categories grouping similar apps and giving them visibility.

Consider Reddit:

Reddit is the only community on the internet where strangers discuss random issues deeply. There’s a Reddit for Trump — https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/

Currently at the top of the popular in India, we have a thread on the LokSabha bill passage. A serious topic is discussed with reasoned replies. TOI comments is the only comparable platform where people debate publicly on topics.

In conclusion, there’s space for lots of applications which enable better discovery of content, discussion of topics/issues and stay true to the goal of connecting the world.

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