As I understand it, the hard parts of designing social media aren’t very technical. Instead it’s considerations like:
• Do we verify identity? Who verifies? Why do we trust them?
• Can we support anonymity without giving bots/farms free reign (especially since it’s useful in dangerous/oppressive situations)?
• Who can communicate or get attention from me? Is it symmetrical?
• Will my employer fire me or family disown me if my real identity is tied to this posting?
• How can social media content providers be paid or is it all amateur? How much is appropriate?
• What are the consequences of theft (uncited copying)? How do we detect this?
• If I post about multiple topics (say personal, professional, hobbies), how do I tag/how do people “subscribe” to just one (without some crazy barrier to entry?
• How do we minimize and handle abusive behavior (most commonly affecting certain groups like women or trans)?
• What’s the point of social media anyway? Is it served best by large platforms?
I see it more as an opportunity to get people into sociology 🙂