Under the seditious management of Elon Musk, 2022 was marked by major changes in the Twitter, this led to the rise of competing social networks like Koo and Mastodon. Meanwhile the tick tock continued on its growth trajectory, eclipsing Mark Zuckerberg’s platforms. Instagram, in turn, had to deal with competition from the Chinese network and others that gained followers, such as Be honest.
But what are the trends for social media in 2023? Which should grow and which may lose space? For the Chron, researcher Laura Toogood, a social computing specialist at University College Dublin in Ireland, analyzed the future of Twitter, TikTok and BeReal over the next year. Cash:
1. Trends for Twitter
In October 2022, Elon Musk acquired the social network for $44 billion. The following week, searches for “how to delete Twitter” increased by 500% and thousands of users decided to search competing platforms like Koo and Mastodon.
Laura Toogood believes Musk’s acquisition could spell the end of the app in the future. “Twitter is one of the most established social media platforms today, but the digital landscape is changing rapidly and so are even the most engaged users [com a rede] switch off when a platform suits their needs,” she explains.
According to the researcher, Musk’s behavior has brought several worrying signs, such as the increase in the spread of hate speech. The most likely scenario for them is that in 2023, Twitter will drop a few notches in the social media popularity rankings.
“The distribution of objectionable content is an issue that is causing some to disconnect while others are on the move [o problema] with the argument of freedom of expression,” he says.
Research by the Center to Combat Digital Hate in the US shows that the use of racist, homophobic, transphobic, and xenophobic slurs increased significantly after Musk’s takeover. The new CEO also fired employees who had campaigned against misinformation and hate speech, and restored suspended accounts like that of former US President Donald Trump.
What should happen to BeReal
By encouraging the sharing of candid photos or videos that Be honest topped the most downloaded apps in the UK and US in May 2022, ahead of other apps like Instagram and Snapchat. However, the trend for 2023 could be a slowdown.
In December, researchers at the PhotoAiD app surveyed more than 900 US BeReal users about their use of the app. The research indicated a decrease in daily usage of the app.
Toogood says that “BeReal’s popularity demonstrates an interesting shift in the world of social media apps and a desire for more authentic and natural posts.”
“While using filters across multiple apps has always been popular, there has been a sense of ‘overcurated’ where content has become too artificial and sponsored posts also dominate some platforms,” he says. For the expert, however, our desire to show off the best version of ourselves online will never go away, potentially causing this app to stop growing.
She highlights research showing that around 43% of BeReal users access the application three or four times before posting the “candid photo”.
TikTok took over the global social media scene with a vengeance in 2018. Owned by Beijingbased ByteDance, the app, which has over a billion users worldwide, is designed to let users create and share short videos.
For the researcher, the format of the Chinese app remains promising. “For many content creators, it’s hard to resist an opportunity to create a video that can go viral and draw crowds to TikTok. It shows that algorithms and the proliferation of popular content are critical to the survival and success of some apps.” .
While Twitter and Meta are laying off employees, TikTok has committed to hiring 3,000 new engineers over the next three years, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Although the company continues to grow and attract more and more users from around the world, the company still faces legal challenges such as allegations that the network is spying on its users and collecting sensitive data. In the US, some states like Indiana and Texas have even called for the app to be banned for exposing children to adult content.
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