Definition of Decentralized and Centralized Social Media Platforms
Centralized Social Media Platform
Anything that is tagged with the word "Centralized" means that that thing has a body that handles management and governs every activity concerning that particular thing. A centralized social media platform is a social network that is governed or controlled by a central authority. As a result of this, users are limited to activities they can perform in the centralized social media. Popular examples are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
Decentralized Social Media Platform
A decentralized social media platform is a model that does not have a central authority that governs the network, instead, users have full control of their activities and the information they contribute to the network.
Differences Between Centralized and Decentralized Social Media Platforms
The major difference between these two social media models is found in their definitions. A centralized social media has a central authority that governs activities in the platform, while a decentralized social media does not have any form of authority that controls the network.
Centralized social media is very susceptible to hacking. This happens a lot in the centralized social media. The decentralized social media platform cannot be hacked.
In a centralized social media platform, an account can be recovered if a user loses his login details. In a decentralized social media platform, users are given "keys" to their accounts and these keys can never be recovered if they get lost. This poses a problems but decentralized platforms make attempts to teach users how to manage security.
In a centralized social media platform, accounts can be suspended for whatsoever reason by the central authority. In a decentralized social media platform, the absence of a central authority implies that nobody has the ability to disable someone else's account. Users are given full control of their own accounts in a decentralized model.
Centralized social media platforms present restrictions to users' activities. A decentralized social media platform does not present any form of restriction. This becomes a problem in some cases when an account would be used to spam other users or to distribute phishing links to compromise the network.
Which One is The Future of Social Media?
The centralized model of social media is the most popular. Social media giants like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are widely used around the globe. Social media has become the bridge that links people worldwide. Language barrier has been destroyed, cultures have intertwined because social media has bridged the gap that once existed between societies.
But as social media keeps growing, people want more. People want more privacy and freedom in the cyber space. Centralized social media has failed to provide this. In my opinion, the decentralized social media platform is the future of social media because it offers the privacy, freedom and transparency that people yearn for.
This is the beginning of the "Blockchain Age". So many concepts have already been built using blockchain technology. It's only a matter of time before Decentralized Social Media Platforms become widely used.