A Web 3.0 Revolution that Could Relieve Us of Our Social Dilemmas

Context: Platforms are emerging that promise to decentralize the internet again and respect user privacy

Three reasons for which social media is being heavily discussed

• US presidential election: Cambridge Analytica, the social analytics firm had manipulated Facebook accounts to impact the 2016 US presidential election and the Brexit vote

• COVID pandemic: Social media helps in effective communication and lockdown entertainment accompanied by evils like misuse by anti-vaxxers and the #Unmask movement 

• Psychological manipulation: For, E.g. a documentary called A Social Dilemma exposes the way in which social media giants manipulated human psychology to influence how we behave.

•  Chiefs of tech companies severely curtail the screen time of their own children, while apparently trying to addict every other adult and child on the planet.

Issue with the Social Media

• Problems in the business model: The business model has led to a “winner takes all” industry structure, creating monopolies and centralizing the once decentralized internet.

• For, E.g. with the development of AdWords, a pay-per-click, auction-based search advertising model, Google’s revenue rocketed to $2.7 billion from $ 87 million in 3 years.

• “When anything is free, you are the product”: Users have evidently failed to recognize that the idea of free internet actually restricts their freedom by collecting their information.

• For, E.g. It is estimated that over 90% of the trillions of pictures out there are hosted by Facebook or its other platforms, WhatsApp and Instagram.

• Thus, an alternative is unlikely to be driven by technology or regulation.

Different generations of Web

• Web 1.0: 

• As originally, the internet was created as a distributed set of computers communicating with one another, and sharing the load of managing the network.
• It worked very well, but there was no way to make money off it: For, E.g. a Web 1.0 startup called Google had heavy traffic, but could not encash it. 

• Web 2.0

• Here the internet got monetized
• Our intentions, personas and desires were identified with laser precision for sale to willing advertisers.
• Huge Profits for the Technology giants: Search, and social media advertising has crossed $200 billion, rocketing past print at $65 billion, and TV at $180 billion.

Way Forward:

• Web 3.0: It is a revolution that promises to return the internet to users. It has the following different principles:

• Allows users explicit control of their data, to grant creators of content—artists, musicians, photographers, instead of platforms taking it all.
• Decentralization: through uses technologies like blockchains.

• Presence technology guard-rails against the accumulation of power and data in the hands of a few.

• Start-ups at the embryonic stage: For, E.g. a homegrown GoSocial, is appealing for a “new kind of social network”.

Conclusion: The path to success for these new kinds of democratic networks will be arduous. The existing business model should change, which could relieve us of our social dilemmas.