Why social media tools succeed until they succeed

Social media tools have evolved into very pleasant user experiences. When LinkedIn first came online, it was useful. Now, it's not. And two of the latest entries Peach and Slack have stepped in to solve the pressing problem of how to make social media useful. For me, the problem with social media is that "social" includes everybody, and that's a few too many people for my taste.

In other words, I think that social media tools are solving the wrong problem.  Here is what Peach aims to tackle. But the goal of the software and the main problem are the same thing: hugeness.  People dream about being part of something huge, and once they are in the hugeness, they see it as a nightmare.

Facebook was fun, while it was manageable and small-ish.  Once the entire world was on it, useful stuff was drown out in the impossibly banal.Twitter jumped into the mix, and it was cool while you had a hundred followers.  Once you had a few thousand, and you didn't know over half of them, it got stupid; fast.Before either of these was LinkedIn.  It was a useful tool, until every tool in the world tried to link to me.Peach is interesting.  Perhaps it will be interesting and useful forever. Ditto Slack.  But it is more likely that all the party crashers will flood in, and something civil and pleasant will become the contrapositive.There is certainly a balancing argument here -- mostly based on capacity to absorb information. I have many friends who exhibit colossal capacity to absorb data (a learned skill).  Most mere mortals can't or won't try to internalize vast amounts of data, and sort it into something sensible, and then order that according to a consistent world view.  Most folks are perfectly happy believing the that the CBS Evening News has everything they could possibly need to know, in order to be part of the global elite.Maybe being uninformed or ill-informed is best.  It's a bunch of work to dig into data yourself, and to think complex thoughts, and to think critically about everything you encounter.  That can wear a fellow out.  Perhaps it's better to just be average.  It certainly involves much less effort and sweat.Back to "crowding the puck," as the hockey moms say.  I have cultivated a handful of friendships over the years, with people who are patently smarter than me, more experienced than me, and more talented than me.  Some are all three.  I treasure learning from them.  And, when I get their attention, they challenge me to evaluate my thinking.  One friend is named Arnold.  He is older than me, he's tried to retire a few times (I think) but has a chronic energy abundance that impairs his ability to just sit around doing nothing.  I hired him because he wanted a part-time job, and he was ex-military (got out of the navy in the late 50s).  He was looking for a job that would challenge his intellect.  I put him in charge of QA, and kept giving him responsibilities until he cried uncle.  Arnold's hours were recently cut to a day a week.  We still go to lunch most every day.  Arnold laughs at my jokes, not because I'm funny, but because it's nice to see a guy putting in the effort.  He isn't likely to be moved by any of my ideas or positions.  My clever arguments make him smile, rather than shock him into thinking I'm right and he's wrong.  His life trajectory is undiverted by my clear thinking and brilliant articulation.  I love having time with him because it is like mental weight lifting.  When I lift weights, the weights don't change; neither do they particularly care how hard I work or groan; neither do they care how fast I progress and achieve.  Hanging out engaging with Arnold changes me, and he thinks that's just fascinating (at least for the span of a lunch).If I had my druthers, I would cloister the handful of folks I "follow" into a private setting, and learn all I could possibly learn.  I would not dilute their essence with common bilge water.Hence, I think Peach will be very successful, until it becomes successful.  Then, it will be just a noisy thing everybody seeks to escape with whatever follows Peach (or Slack, etc.).  This isn't a technology problem, or even a user experience problem.  It's a problem involving who gets involved.  Too few, it's a dud.  Too many, and the bigness makes it a nightmare.  So, it's a species of crowd-surfing.  You want to be on top of the wave after it becomes a wave.  Also, you want to move off the wave before it gets too close to shore and turns into a boiling, frothy mess.That's why I think that everybody aspires to be part of something global and huge -- right up to the point where they are actually involved in something global and huge.  I want to be involved in the global social network, until it actually engages everybody on the globe.  Same applies to banking, religion, government, corporations, and many other things I could mention.  "Men go crazy in congregations; they only get better one by one." (Sting).