Centralization is a single cause of failure. It was clear yesterday when Facebook's entire operations, including its subsidiary sites Instagram and Whatsapp up to the physical facility, were down for five hours.
The technical glitch, resulting from a routing problem in the insular layers that comprise the web, was an opportunity to reflect on how interconnected the internet is in "nearly every facet of existence," New York Times reporter Raymond Zhong wrote.
There were interruptions to newsmakers, retailers' medical facilities, and even religions worldwide.
The crypto-savvy influencers used the occasion to take shots at the social media giant that is centralized.
This outage strengthens the argument for decentralized alternatives that could provide more security or allow users to control their data and transfer it to another platform at any time they'd like.
However, there's a second lesson to be learned from the downfall: Facebook is a corporation in decline, and so is the whole Web 2 business model.
It's odd the way that Big Tech "walled gardens," which include Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Google - have escaped their boundaries to become interconnected with the world, yet have become less important each day.
This was a claim New York Times columnist Kevin Roose made yesterday in the timely piece "Facebook Is Weaker Than We Knew," in light of new disclosures by whistleblower evidence that Facebook was aware of its negative impact on users.
While there are demands to dismantle Facebook or control its shady business practices, The firm is struggling to stay relevant.
"Its young users who are attracted on Snapchat and TikTok as well as its older users are sharing anti-vaccine memes and discussing political issues. Certain Facebook products are shrinking, whereas others simply make their users self-conscious or angry," Roose said.
Facebook was a major player that preceded Web 2, the sea shift to the internet, which allowed users to browse content and be involved in it. The site that was named after it was an exciting place to relax.
It was a way for creators to establish their reputations to allow "the world to connect."
However, according to The Wall Street Journal reported in "The Facebook Files," this time of ephemeralization is nearing the end of its run.
In one sad instance, Facebook executives reportedly held sessions on incorporating its play dates with its platforms to tap into the "valuable but untapped audience" of kids.
In the digital age, it is essential to pay attention. Facebook has been using shady methods to keep users in, frequently at the cost to their psychological health, and often democracy in general. The algorithms encourage self-promotion, "hallmonitorization," and fake news.
It's not surprising that Facebook struggles to keep its market position.
As awe-inspiring figures and the valuations of companies show, the world's attention has been diverted to the fascinating cryptocurrency.
This is particularly relevant to millennials and zoomers, who utilized their time off during the coronavirus outbreak to learn how to earn farm tokens, communicate in crypto-specific chat rooms (on Discord and Telegram), and express themselves using NFTs, which are non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Bitcoiner laser eyes and Bored Ape PFPs (profile photos) are only the beginning. The downfall of Facebook might not be directly related to the growth of decentralized alternatives.
Platforms distributed, such as Mastodon or Minds, have had difficulty attracting and keeping users on board. Still, nobody knows for sure what twitter's decentralized "Blue Sky" protocol will look like.
There's a trend in which users decide to make the internet decentralized independently.
Alternative platforms are increasingly popular, even though they're not as popular globally (Facebook has reported that an average of 2.76 billion users are using at most one of its apps every day in June). Crypto can be seen as the center of this trend.
As My colleague, Will Gottsegen, stated, the crypto market still suffers from reputation stigma. However, an overwhelming amount of people are turning to the new tools offered by Web 3.
Decentralized games, such as Axie Infinity or NBA Top Shot, have experienced an explosion of players. Journalists have been flocking to crypto-based Mirror. Audius is a blockchain-based streaming platform that is an important competitor in the world of music.
The term "user-owned" doesn't necessarily mean crypto. The greater proliferation of users is beneficial to alternative, centralized platforms such as SubStack, Discord, and Clubhouse the most.
The broad definition of Web 3 will be an archipelago of platforms and apps in which people can self-congregate according to their preferences. If one falls, it won't be major news.
Listen the article on Spotify
Find more articles on https://anynft.in