Anti SNARF? - Do We Need Another Social Network!

Buzzfeed’s CEO writes famous memos when the company is on the verge of a big change. This time Buzzfeed has called out social media companies for creating addictive content that we mindlessly scroll. 

• It’s “mission is to build a new platform that brings joy and playfulness back to the internet”

• And in no surprise, they are considering creating their own version of a positive social media platform dubbed Island (which has been an existing platform).

• SNARF content is -

  • Stakes

  • Novelty

  • Anger

  • Retention

  • Fear

  • SNARF is all geared to drive enragement to generate engagement and mindless scrolling. 

• I’m all in for better platforms, however, the challenge every new social network has is generating networks you want to join with enough good content and good accounts you want to follow. 

• Platforms like Reddit are closing off their content and going behind paywalls - with an advertising play and an inbuilt rewards system we are seeing shifts to new models and hybrid models to make social networks work financially 

• With most social networks now 90% viewers (aka lurkers, those who do not generate any content) 9% creators and 1% super creators it’s a huge feat to create something that people will choose to use over their friends and celebrities on Insta, the endless stream of edutainment on TikTok or doom scrolling AI written LinkedIn updates

• A case for 👍️ - we often seek out new networks and want to replace old ones. Mindless scrolling is happening everywhere, we have forgotten how to be bored and we seek out places to fill micro slots of time (toilet breaks, commutes, on walks etc). Substack has had some success with superfans of the platform with their move towards more social interactions and their notes product

• A case against 👎️ - most social media is actually taking place on chat apps like iMessage and WhatsApp we are actively joining smaller groups and communities and being engaged here versus being performative and on display on social networks like TikTok and Instagram. I can’t see if Threads and Bluesky are struggling for daily and weekly users that a platform that likely will act like a platform around status and engagement will convert users.

I like what Buzzfeed created, it is the original viral publisher, I like Jonah (their CEO) but social networks aren’t just about content, it’s about signal, status, connection, velocity of content sharing and being responsible for something that changes sub-culture and communities. 

A positive social network will take years to engineer for long-term success.

Even if they brought on someone like Nikita Bier who has engineered two incredibly popular apps that have socially engineered teen sharing and sold to Discord and Facebook, I don’t think or see a new social product can be sticky enough to displace what’s out there.

I will be happy to be wrong :-)

>> This originally featured as my deep dive in my monthly Must Reads Newsletter. You can read the February’s Must Reads newsletter here