For several years now I’ve been wondering what will replace Facebook.

I’ve been looking for an alternative for a few years now and I’m also quite used the idea that social networks change every so often, usually every 6-7 years. As far as social media goes, I’ve tried and created content for just about everything including Blogger, HotOrNot, Tumblr, Periscope, Reddit, YouTube, Linkedin, Snapchat, Twitter, Medium, Findery, Pinterest, Instagram, about.me, Vine, Blab, Foursquare, Yelp, Quora, Etsy, Ebay, Teachable, well you get the idea. It’s fairly obvious that I'm really passionate about online communication, content creation and sharing information.

I’ll basically try anything new that comes along and I’m always on the lookout for some new creative way to express myself, make a living and connect with others in a virtual manner. In 2002-3 I taught myself HTML and dabbled with creating websites. I built an experimental website called Wrongland that contained hidden treasures in it. It was designed to reward those who dug deep into the site, as only certain pages contained gifts. And every day, the location of the gifts changed. The gifts consisted mostly of plastic sandwiches that were sent via snail mail to the winners in a brown paper sack.

Not many people even found the gifts because not many people could find my website. But it was fun and I liked to see how something real could materialize from the virtual world. After building a few websites for myself and others, I noticed that I liked to learn how to build them, but I didn’t enjoy building them to make money. I seemed to enjoy the creating aspect more than anything else. Building websites soon lost its shiny new feel and then I found the social network Friendster which I joined right away. Myspace came soon after that, and I quickly jumped onto that, abandoning Friendster. Due to social pressure, I joined Facebook in 2008, even though I remember liking Myspace more at the time. I’ve been on Facebook ever since, but I began losing interest in it around 2013.

In 2013-2014 I noticed the thrill of sharing personal stuff with friends and family on Facebook was losing its luster.

And added to that, something in me changed the day my father, who is 83 years old, came down the stairs and said,

“I woke up and saw my Facebook memories and couldn’t believe it. I wonder what my memories will be tomorrow?”

From that day on, my father continually refers to the algorithmically-induced Facebook memory retrieval system as “My Memories”. I’m not sure why this particular Facebook feature creeps me out so much, but I think it’s truly disturbing how an algorithm can have such a powerful effect on our emotions and control how we feel about our past and life itself. This prompted me to think more critically about Facebook and its effect on human beings.

I increasingly felt that something was missing from my Facebook experience and indeed, I was not alone. I am not saying that Facebook will suffer the same fate as Myspace but I think it could definitely lose its footing in the coming years. Why do I think this? If I have successfully gotten over my Facebook addiction, this means that others have too, or will do the same in the future.

Facebook doesn’t solve my problems anymore. For starters, it doesn’t provide me with any income and as an independent creator/writer/artist, I generally find myself having to pay Facebook to promote my posts to my own followers. Facebook’s algorithms changed in their favor, not mine. Also, I am more and more bothered by the fact that my artistic content is generating revenue for Facebook, not for me. At the core, I do not feel that I have control over my own social network and I also feel exploited to some degree.

Additionally, all my relatives are now on Facebook, and the whole experience feels stifling to my creativity. It feels too big, too impersonal and too big brother-ish. I’m ready for new options.

Luckily, there are many new, disruptive and exciting social media platforms emerging. The energy that is brewing just under the surface of the old platforms is stirring up memories of the early days of the internet when Napster was alive, YouTube was just starting and Myspace was still a thing.

So, what are these new social platforms and how are they different from Facebook?

While the emerging social media platforms are all different from each other, they share some core similarities. These similarities are in the basic way they function as well as the new technology they use. All of these new platforms are based on decentralized power and most use blockchain technology.

When you look at history, if many diverse groups of people are all working on the same kind of technology and systems separately, then you know that this technology/system will come to pass eventually.

Right now there are approximately five major groups building out the next generation of social media. There may be more that I’m unaware of.

These five groups have largely abandoned the hierarchical system that defines most corporate structures.

The corporate structure is defined by the top dogs getting most of the spoils from the bottom-dwelling people. The corporate system is an extractive and exploitive one, with the CEO at the top of the food chain, and the workers having little to no intrinsic value besides what they can produce for the ones who manage them. Autonomy is not rewarded or considered a desirable trait and generally speaking, those who are autonomous or who do not go along with the established system of power are routinely fired. What’s left in a corporation is a large group of sheep who have exchanged their free will and critical thinking abilities for a set amount of money each month.

These new social media platforms reject this hierarchical system. Not all of these new platforms are perfect, though, and some retain remnants of centralized control. All of them have been inspired by the success of the digital currency, Bitcoin. Bitcoin has been successfully running without a CEO since its inception. Satoshi Nakamoto wrote the Bitcoin white paper, creating the concept initially, but then vanished into obscurity after it was implemented. His/her/their identity is still unknown. Gavin Andresen is currently the Chief Scientist for the Bitcoin Foundation.

Blockchain is Bitcoin's killer technology.

Bitcoin’s killer technology is called blockchain, and it’s the central technological advancement that virtually all the new social media sites are developing. Blockchain technology is currently revolutionizing the worlds of finance, government, banking and now social media. The blockchain allows transactions to be processed in a tamper-proof, transparent manner and these transactions are carried out by computer miners who live all over the globe.

So, that should lay the foundation for what I am about to cover next: emerging next-gen social media sites. Some you can join today, others are on the verge of being released and still others will not be released until the end of this year or the beginning of 2017. I do not recommend that anyone invest any money into these platforms. I do recommend, however, investing time in these emerging networks. Turn your existing Facebook or Reddit addiction into a new social media adventure where you can get many more of your needs met while you’re meeting brand-new people from all over the world. It’s the Wild West of social media again! Let’s go!

Akasha http://akasha.world/

Akasha stands for “Advanced Knowledge Architecture for Social Human Advocacy." Akasha is a decentralized social media platform built on the Ethereum network and the Inter-Planetary File System. Akasha is a decentralized social media platform that rewards its content creators with Ethereum’s native digital currency, ETH. If Ethereum is new to you, here’s a definition:

“Ethereum is a public blockchain-based distributed computing platform, featuring smart contract functionality. It provides a decentralized virtual machine, the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), that can execute peer-to-peer contracts using a cryptocurrency called ether.” -wikipedia

From the Akasha website:

"You can publish, share and vote for entries, similar to Medium and other modern publishing platforms, with the difference that your content is actually published over a decentralized network rather than on our servers. Moreover, the votes are bundled with ETH micro transactions so if your content is good you’ll make ETH from it – in a way, mining with your mind.”

Akasha is set to release its Beta version at the end of 2016. Akasha is led by Mihai Alisie, the co-founder of Ethereum.

Diaspora https://diasporafoundation.org/

Diaspora is a user-owned, nonprofit distributed social network that is kept free of corporate take-overs. It is different from the four other networks in that it doesn’t have a monetary system baked in. Users retain rights to their own content and third parties are not allowed access to the content on Diaspora. The network is made up of nodes and makes use of Diaspora’s software. Users can decide whether their content will be “public” or “limited.” In this way, users have control over who sees different kinds of their content. Diaspora was founded in 2010 and as of March 2014, there are 1 million Diaspora accounts. Founders: Ilya Zhitomirskiy, Dan Grippi, Max Salzberg, and Raphael Sofaer.

Steemit https://steemit.com/

Steemit is a disruptive blockchain-based social media site that focuses on blogging. This is a network you can join today. Steemit pays you in digital currency to create original content. It’s still in Beta, but it’s an amazing opportunity to learn about the blockchain. It has the feel of Medium mixed with Reddit and it values original, long-form content over short posts. Many of its core users are experts in the digital currency space. Digital currency is more commonly referred to as cryptocurrency. Steemit is not a get rich quick kind of place, but rather a place where people are working towards building and developing a functional new system. Steemit has a built-in reputation system and a weighted voting system that is based on a user’s Steem Power. Steemit is a website application that is built upon a transparent, decentralized blockchain. Steemit.com contains both centralized and decentralized power structures. Steem is the digital currency that fuels the ecosystem, and Steemit.com can be thought of as one branch of a big tree known as Steem. The digital currency that fuels Steemit has three kinds in it: Steem, Steem Power and Steem Dollars. Steem and Steem Dollars can be publicly traded on cryptocurrency marketplaces like Bittrex and Poloniex. The founders are Daniel Larimer and Ned Scott.

Synereo https://www.synereo.com/

A blockchain-based social media site that will release its alpha version soon and has been in development for two years. Synereo is purely decentralized in that its social network is peer-to-peer with no central authority acting as a liason. Synereo also uses invitation protocol to keep your personal network under your control. Synereo has its own digital currency called AMPs which can be traded on digital currency marketplaces. Synereo has been built using the attention economy model and also makes use of a reputation system. When content creators publish something on Synereo, they can add AMPs to make it travel and reach people outside their network. Also, people who engage with content that is ‘AMPed’ can gain a portion of those AMPs.

The Synereo team has been developing the technology behind its network for over five years. It has really big goals for the future that go well beyond social media. It is developing technology for smart contracts and also distributed storage. It has been dubbed the “Facebook killer”. The founders are Dor Konforty and Greg Meredith.

Yours https://www.yours.network/

The Yours network is building a social media site using the existing Bitcoin blockchain. Content creators of all kinds will be able to receive Bitcoin micropayments from the people who feel passionate about their work. Yours appears to have a reputation system and also a way for people to earn Bitcoin from curating content. It’s still in development and its strongest aspect is that it can build upon an established community of Bitcoin users.

“Alongside payments, user identities will also be decentralized. “We plan to utilize a form of decentralized ID like BlockStack,” McKie said, although they haven’t settled on which framework they’ll be using yet. The developer was adamant, however, about users being in full control over their own data. “Yours accounts will only have as much information as you give,” he explained. “You have full control of your private keys in your Yours wallet.”-http://bravenewcoin.com/news/bitcoin-based-content-platform-yours-attracts-overwhelming-interest-from-investors/

The founder is Ryan X Charles who was previously employed as the Cryptocurrency Engineer at Reddit.

As more decentralized social media sites emerge, the competition between them will of course become fierce. However, I believe there is room for all of them.

I also believe that they can all learn from each other to become more efficient. If one technology outperforms the rest, it should be adopted by the others. Similarly, if one kind of structure turns out to be more appealing to social media users, that structure should be adopted. There is no need to hang onto bad designs. The only reason egos exist is so they may be destroyed.

My outlook may be optimistic, but I am a firm believer in creating bridges between factions so that optimal positive changes occur during the emerging transition to decentralized systems. It’s crucial that existing Facebook addicts find and join new decentralized social networks that meet their needs instead of exploit them. The future looks bright and it looks increasingly decentralized.

Let’s do this.

photocollage made by me using an image from unsplash