Social Media Recycling

THE ONLY TIME I CARED about social media was from around 2000 to 2005, when AOL was king of the cyber universe and chatrooms were the only form of social media. Anybody who was anybody was on AOL, as those of you old enough to remember will recall. I joined and soon got hooked, finding myself highly entertained by the conversation in the chatrooms, and since I was a bit shy about participating heavily, I always claimed to be sitting in the corner, taking notes, preparing to write a book. The book never got written, but since then social media have expanded explosively, and so, presumably, has the number of books about it. I could still write a book about all the people I met, including the ones who came to visit me. I wonder whatever happened to them all. After about 2005 I lost interest in the social internet and haven't been back since, although I keep thinking about it.When I tried to find a chatroom after being away from them for several years, I was shocked and surprised to find that they had basically vanished, replaced by Facebook and others. I actually got a Facebook page, and a few Facebook friends, but I still haven't really figured what I want to do with it or how. Social media these days seems to be filled with anger and conflict. During the chatroom days, it was the same way, and it kept getting worse, and worse. I have long suspected that not only did Facebook replace chatrooms, but that the acrimony in chatrooms just got to be too much for most people. I really have no idea how much acrimony there is on Facebook; I'm almost afraid to find out. Beyond a certain amount, there could be another mass exodus from online social interaction, and the next generation of social media would eventually rise from the ashes of it predecessors.