Good morning, Marketer, and how about the burden of social monitoring?
Our contributor Gene De Libero had very early involvement in what would become social media. We asked him about the increase in cyberbullying since the early days: “You didn’t see a lot of hate and a lot of craziness because [platforms] were small and easier to manage. But with AOL and early Facebook, when those things started to take off, you started to see bad actors because you can’t keep up.”
That took me on a trip down memory lane. An unbelievable 20 years ago I became involved in informal discussion forums focused (mainly) on food and drink. It did start out small, with people not only interacting online but meeting up for meals. It grew fast, and as it grew it became increasingly contentious. People who don’t know each other are happy to be rude to each other online. The only way the moderators could keep up was by banning or otherwise silencing people. The forum is still around, but its original membership, for the most part, went elsewhere.
I subsequently was on the moderating team for a similar forum. Hours of my life spent trying to stop people from fighting. Hours I will never get back. But the enduring relationships that were built have been worth it.
Kim Davis,
Editorial Director
