[sharun]

People have been conditioned now for a decade to attach value to their like/retweet/view/karma counts.

It's the core piece of the architecture producing the instant gratification high that everyone is addicted too.

It really is the biggest factor that forces centralization of our social networks. Any decentralization scheme that produces value needs to address it. Most that get proposed don't.

[EGreg]

That's because the current "social" web is really about announcements and talking at crowds.

Real social activities are decentralized local things like:

  * Going to dinner
  * Taking a trip together
  * Chipping in for a gift
  * Attending an event
  * Dating
  * Interacting with one another
  * Forums and communities
  * Group driving
  * Meetups
  * Volunteering in community
  * Helping after a disaster
  * Buying and selling furniture

That's the stuff you don't need global singletons for.

You don't need your signal to go to facebook or even AT&T to invite friends for dinner.

Centralized social networks and governments cause perverse feelings in local communities where eg democrats and republicans living next to each other increasingly hate each other.

I talk about it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzMm7-j7yIY

[eximius]

Even 'real' social activities are increasingly reliant on multinationals that economically dominate their spaces. You don't HAVE to use them, but it is rarer and rarer to not roll up to a multinational. That is still a form of centralization.