Decentralized Social Media vs Centralized Social Media – Which is the Future of Social Media?

in hive-175254 •  3 years ago 

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Decentralized Social Media

Based on my opinion, a decentralized social media platform is a platform that is governed and controlled by the users of the platform in decentralized way. This means that users make the rules and decide what happens on the platform, the rules and make decisions on the platform. A decentralized social media platform is mostly run on blockchain technology. In a decentralized social media, the users have an input and make decisions on the platform.

Benefits
  • The power, rules and decision making is on the users
  • It cannot be taken down because it runs on the blockchain
  • Censorship resistance and contents cannot be deleted
Centralized Social Media

Based on my opinion, a centralized social media platform is a social media platform that is owned, controlled and governed by a singular company who make all the rules and make all the decisions without the users input. A centralized social media platform decides what happens, what changes to make and how the platform is run by the company that owns the social media platform. Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, TikTok, Youtube are all centralized social media platforms.

Benefits
  • It is much faster to implement changes
  • It is easier to eliminate abusive accounts
  • Scam accounts can be banned and deleted faster

Difference Between Decentralized Social Media and Centralized Social Media

On decentralized social media platform, your posts cannot be censored. While on centralized social media platform, your posts can be censored.

On decentralized social media platform, users have full control and ownership of their contents. While on centralized social media platform, users do not have full control and ownership of their contents.

On decentralized social media platform, the decisions and affairs of the platform is made by the users. While on centralized social media platform, the company makes all the decisions.

On decentralized social media platform, all contents is stored on blockchain. While on centralized social media platform, all contents is stored on the company servers.

On decentralized social media platform, users’ information is safe and cannot be sold. While on centralized social media platform, users’ information is not safe and can be sold.

On decentralized social media platform, user accounts cannot be taken down. While on centralized social media platform, user accounts can be taken down.

On decentralized social media platform, users have full control and ownership of their contents. While on centralized social media platform, users do not have full control and ownership of their contents.

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Decentralised system is the best between. Nonetheless it has it flaws too. To me I am rooting for decentralized system as simply the best.

I share the same opinion as well... Decentralized social media has shown that it offers a lot of benefits compared to the traditional centralized social media

It's clear that the decentralized system is the best, since it favors the input of the users. Unlike a centralized social media where things are not in the hands of the users. Thanks for sharing!

You are right... in decentralized social media, the users have full control of their contents and it favors the inputs of the users, while in centralized social media, the users do not have control of their contents and the decisions and rules are made by the platform owners

Each one has its advantages. I am one of those who think that we will continue using the 2.0 networks while the 3.0 ones become popular.

But, if we continue to encourage their use in other suaurios, little by little they will become more widespread and more we will enjoy all the benefits they offer us.

Thanks for your post.

You have made a very good point

Hi @designieplay

I must admit that you chosed very interesting and quite challenging topic. Especially since decentralized social media is something brand new and it's hard to imaging where is it heading.

My impression is, that so far idea of decentralization is just an illusion. That each time important decisions are being made - only then we learn that community voice hardly matters. That often few so called "whales" working closely together are having power to make decisions. And "decentralization" allows them greatly to avoid being responsible for making wrong choices.

That's just my personal view. Bit gloom and doom hehe.


It cannot be taken down because it runs on the blockchain

Technicaly it can. Front-end may be shut down. And validators / node owners would be pressured by authorities to shut down their operation. And entire blockchain would be down. It's quite achievable. Unfortunatelly.
(that's just another small illusion that word "decentralization" brings).

Solid read. Upvote on the way :)
Cheers, Piotr

You have made really good points here...

One of the reasons why i think it will be almost impossible for contents that run on a decentralized blockchain to be taken down, even though technically it can be taken down, is that a blockchain that has thousands or millions of nodes in different countries and different parts of the world, would be impossible for a coordination to be in place to be pressured by authorities to shut down their operations. Because, the authorities would have to coordinate all the running nodes before it can even be possible. In some mechanisms, Even if the top nodes in major countries are pressured to shut down, the blockchain would still run because the nodes below the ranking would take over those shutdown positions. Nonetheless, the concept of decentralization is still in its early years and still has a long way to go to completely replace centralization when it comes to social media.

Thanks for your input