With Twitter (I refuse to use its new name) undergoing significant change and dissatisfied users looking elsewhere, I couldn’t help but notice how many similar social media platforms there are. Just the Twitter alternatives include Mastadon, Counter.Social, Diaspora, Bluesky, T2 Social, and Threads. Who can keep up?

Social media is less than 30 years old. The first social networking site was Six Degrees, followed by Friendster, MySpace, and LinkedIn. Then Facebook came along in 2004, and social networking took off. Social networking began as a desktop or laptop experience. The phenomenon took another giant leap forward when it appeared on smartphones and tablets in 2008, just 15 years ago.

Everyone remembers the early days of social networking which allowed you to keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues, including people you never met in person. But the good times didn’t last. As social media companies grew their user bases into the hundreds of millions, the business applications of Facebook, Twitter, and other social platforms began to take shape. Social media companies had access to some of the richest trackable user data ever conceived. Businesses were quick to jump on board, and soon, we were inundated with ads as marketing pros took over. And not necessarily for stuff we would ever buy.

Large social media platforms use algorithms that do not necessarily understand end users’ needs and interests. Frequently, I see users complaining online that they never see their closest followers anymore. Then there is the discord that seems to have taken hold of some platforms in the form of hate, harassment, and online bullying. More and more, users have become reluctant to express a view publicly.

So, what is the future of social media? The industry’s brief history has proven that rapid change, technological advances, more assertive financial demands, and shifting cultural dynamics—will transform the current social media landscape. There appears to be a move towards subscription services for social media. But people aren’t going to pay for a service unless they see actual value, something that seems to elude Twitter.

I sense that many people are leaving platforms for greener pastures. Some people are drawn by specialty social media platforms where they can network with like-minded individuals. Next Door allows people to network with those in their neighbourhood. People interested in health care are using PatientsLikeMe. There’s Catmoji for cat lovers. The large mainstream platforms will continue, but they can’t provide the kind of networking many people are interested in.

Consumers will gravitate toward services that allow them to:

• Personalize content at a more granular level
• Reduce the amount of nastiness and conflict commonly found on public social media feeds
• Increase focus on protecting privacy
• Take greater advantage of the utility of mobile devices
• Focus more on community building

Will Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other major platforms go the way of Google+ and MySpace? Can social media maintain its relevance as technology evolves? Human beings are social creatures. Commerce is driven by human interaction. These two facts will continue to shape the evolution of social media into the next decade and beyond.