It is doubtful that a year ago anyone could have anticipated that Elon Musk would own Twitter, only to subsequently seek someone else to run the show. In fact, 2022 was quite the year for social media as Donald Trump finally launched Truth Social, there were renewed calls to ban TikTok, while a Twitter alternative had yet to emerge.

2023 could see even more upheavals for social media. Yet, what is almost certain is that the platforms will continue to be used by younger people.

“Gen Z will continue to heavily influence the social media landscape and their desire for authenticity will lead to major transformational changes in the industry,” suggested Wendy Mei, head of product and strategy at social media app Playsee.

New Services Could Emerge

Gen Z social media users will likely continue to have a desire for accurate representations of themselves and others around them, and therefore, will gravitate towards authentic, and less curated content.

“Old platforms that are so entrenched with unrealistically perfect ideologies will be unable to satisfy this generation; the measurable shift in preferences has and will continue to lead to a significant discontent among some of the major players in the space – creating room for new platforms that promote authenticity,” added Mei. “As with any industry, there are bound to be some platforms that don’t make it through the year so it’s up to us to create that staying power and desire for long-term use.”

Users could also find new ways to integrate social media into their everyday lives to satisfy their need to connect and have a sense of belonging in their communities, Mei suggested.

Twitter’s Downward Spiral Will Continue

Elon Musk already seems to have a bit of “buyer’s remorse” over his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter. His policies with the social media platform aren’t likely to help it, at least not in the short term.

“The downward spiral of Twitter will continue so long as Elon Musk insists on staying in the public eye and engaging with critics like a third-grade playground bully,” said technology analyst Charles King of Pund-IT. “It also seems likely that Twitter will try engaging a well-known partner or partners to revamp troubled parts of its business, including its advertising organization.”

The days of Twitter’s dominance could come to an end.

“The growing number of increasingly viable competitors, Musk’s mismanagement, and employee litigation should have it solidly in the MySpace category by year-end,” added Rob Enderle, technology analyst at the Enderle Group.

Meta Problems?

Twitter won’t be the only social media company that is seeking to move past the problems it faced in 2022. It is likely many at Facebook parent Meta would like to move beyond last year. How exactly that will happen isn’t clear, however.

“The Metaverse social network experiment will continue to fail until the technology meets expectations, likely towards the end of the …read more

Source:: Social Media Explorer

Author: Aaron