They don’t even want you to use the website I don’t think. They’ve even done experiments where they blocked people from using the mobile website. The more they want me to use their app, the more I want to avoid Reddit all together.

  • kalipike@lemmy.one
    51·
    2 years ago

    I really don’t get why all these social platforms try so hard to just be copies of each other. I like having diverse and different platforms for different things. Once they all started homogenizing, I really stopped using most social media.

    And when LinkedIn added their ripoff of Instagram Stories I was like…aaaaand that’s it for me. Why does a professional site need a stories feature?

    • Kempeth@feddit.de
      27·
      2 years ago

      Because companies don’t want money. They don’t want a lot of money. They want ALL the money. If another company has a feature that people like and use, then this company wants that money as well. So they either buy that other company or copy and push the feature in the hopes of converting users.

      This is why YouTube has these asinine shorts shoved into your layout. They know YT users don’t want them. This is why you can’t disable them. They know that another company makes money with shorts and they want it - so YOU are gonna use them goddammit.

      A third party YouTube app doesn’t have to show these shorts so YT wouldn’t be able to pressure their users into consuming that format.

      • kalipike@lemmy.one
        7·
        2 years ago

        I happen to like the shorts. I only wish your shirts subscriptions were separate from your regular subscriptions. Otherwise I don’t have any issues with it.

        However, I do know a lot of people do take issue with it, and that’s okay!

    • kadu@lemmy.world
      25·
      2 years ago

      That’s precisely what they don’t want. The modern fight isn’t directly for your money, but for your time.

      If you’re binge watching Netflix… You’re not playing a Nintendo game. If you’re playing a Nintendo game… You’re not listening to Spotify. Or going to the movie theater. And so on.

      For social media platforms it’s the same. People like short videos now? Well, if Facebook doesn’t add them to their app you’ll close it and go browse TikTok. In the next board meeting, executives are going to ask the team why the hell are they not working on adding short videos.

      It’s a vicious battle for your time, and then figuring out later how to monetize that attention. Usually ads.

      • kalipike@lemmy.one
        6·
        2 years ago

        It’s a good point, albeit a highly unfortunate one. No faster way to get me to spend less time in your app than to make it the same as all the others, you know?

    • ChosenUndead15@lemmy.world
      13·
      2 years ago

      LinkedIn is the most stupid thing because it is a fucking job board that wants to play to be Facebook and is the most unnecesary thing in the world. Before the Instagram Stories clone they were already too far by adding like 20 other social network features that a page like LinkedIn doesn’t need.

    • alcoholic_chipmunk@lemmy.world
      7·
      2 years ago

      You see this in other industries as well. I think every business just wants to be Walmart and an airline at the same time.

      Then they would be selling literally everything, no one would shop anywhere else and their prices would adjust automagiclly based on the size of your wallet.

    • Stumblinbear@pawb.social
      61·
      2 years ago

      A platform’s development is entirely in the hands of its userbase. If the users stay on the platform longer due to a change, they’ll make that change and keep it. It just so happens that humans like what humans like, so all social media tries to cater to the same things that humans like, which leads them to implementing the same features because it drives engagement. It’s a trend towards mediocrity.

      • kalipike@lemmy.one
        6·
        2 years ago

        I understand the logical concept here but struggle to really get it. As platforms do this homogenization, I lose interest in all of them. I’d far rather have several platforma that do one or two things really, really well instead of a bunch of platforms that do everything, but poorly.

        I like your comment about a trend toward mediocrity!

        • Stumblinbear@pawb.social
          1·
          2 years ago

          Oh sure, they push away some subset of users, but there are large swaths of the population that it appeals to. Significantly more than it annoys.

    • socialjusticewizard@sh.itjust.works
      2·
      2 years ago

      This kind of feature creep was also common in the web2.0 days. Lots of forum plugins were basically “you can have a facebook profile and feed page and a twitter feed, but they’re all wish.com equivalents because they’re locally hosted and can only be seen by the other people on this forum”. These features were generally quite popular too, heck I installed a few on my own forum. Besides money and things, I think it’s enticing to want to make your site into a “one stop” site. Throw in the fact that these are all capitalist hegemons trying to become the next ring to rule them all, and I think you’ve got your answer.