20.6. Imagining Alternatives

Now try thinking about different ways online social media could work.

Are these alternatives good ideas? ¯\(ツ)/¯

Reflect on these prompts and try to work out what the consequences would be for different ways of social media working:

• What if social media sites were governed by their users instead of by shareholders (e.g., governed by the subjugated instead of the colonialists)?

  • How would users participate in decision making?

  • Would non-users have a say (e.g., if the whole user base decides to harass a group of non-users)?

  • How do you think the sites would work differently?

• What if social media sites were created in other countries and cultures? (Note: we already have various Chinese social media sites as one point of comparison)

  • What different values would be embedded and what would that look like?

  • For example, many cultures value family connections much more than white Americans do, but current American social media sites do not emphasize them.