A couple of times every year, a buzzy new social platform generates interest, and marketers start asking questions about whether it’s worth creating a profile, and/or what the opportunities might be. Normally, my qualification for covering one of these new apps is 10 million users, because any lower than that, and it’s just not relevant. You can have all the buzz you want, but with so few users, on balance, who really cares?
I’m making an exception in this case only because the approach that BuzzFeed is taking is so unusual, being the first time that an internet-born company has sought to take the reigns for itself, and create its own social app.
This image is from a new website for BuzzFeed’s “Island” social media app. Well, we’re presuming that it’s called “Island” based on the URL, though BuzzFeed hasn’t officially announced a name for the project.
Essentially web publisher BuzzFeed, led my Jonah Peretti, is creating its own social network in order to counter the negative impacts of the current leading social apps, which are largely caused by AI-based algorithms that optimize for engagement above all else.
As explained by Peretti:
“Deep learning AIs are designed to maximize the time we all spend on these apps. It turns out when an app company doesn’t care about content, and asks an AI to maximize usage, the result is a service that incentivizes content that maximizes addictiveness. The type of content that gets created and recommended is not the best content, but the content that elicits the most compulsive and predictable response from the human brain.”
Which is a well-known bug of the broader internet, that emotional response is what drives clicks, which then incentivizes high-arousal approaches in order to maximize content performance.
Various studies have shown that anger and fear are the best drivers of emotional response, which means that publishers and creators are pushed towards creating this type of content. Which is arguably a key reason why we’re now so politically divided.
Peretti calls this content “SNARF,” and says that AI algorithms boost this even further than before.
“We’re all familiar with this kind of content, especially those of us who are chronically online. Content creators exaggerate stakes (S) to make their content urgent and existential. They manufacture novelty (N) and spin their content as unprecedented and unique. They manipulate anger (A) to drive engagement via outrage. They hack retention (R) by withholding information and promising a payoff at the end of a video. And they provoke fear (F) to make people focus with urgency on their content.”
Interestingly, BuzzFeed has been one of the key beneficiaries of this approach, with headlines that lure users in, especially on Facebook, by aligning with Meta’s all-powerful algorithms.
But now, Peretti’s looking to take a stand, by creating a social network that’s not built on these same addictive approaches.
“The public is beginning to catch on. Everyone is beginning to realize that the system is broken. People are beginning to crave something different.”
So how will BuzzFeed’s social network be different?
Peretti says that their social platform will maintain a level of human curation, and will focus on the real stories of value, not just the latest dopamine hit.
“We do the doomscrolling for you, so you can follow the biggest trends, find the hidden gems, and be in the loop without wasting your time and risking your mental health. We will also counter the anger and fear with a sense of humor, laughing at the buffoonery and ridiculousness of the most powerful people.”
The initiative will incorporate HuffPost, Tasty, and other BuzzFeed properties to create what sounds more like a news app than a social network.
But Peretti’s pitching it as a social media alternative, so we’ll have to wait and see how that all links up.
“We will ensure that our community’s joy and humanity are preserved and celebrated. SNARF drives engagement, but if we do our job we can still break through with humor, with joy, and with a small dose of righteous anger. And we will bring more fun and playfulness back to the internet with low stakes content that is pure entertainment, from celebrity stories to shopping to personal advice.”
Yeah, I’m not sure that this is going to actually work as a concept, and definitely not as a rival for the existing social apps. And really, it sounds more like a pitch for a centralized, refined version of BuzzFeed’s platforms, in app form, not a social network, but maybe there’s more to it.
Peretti further notes that the platform “will use AI to give users agency instead of stealing their agency.”
Conceptually, the proposal sounds promising, but the actual application here sounds like the comment sections of BuzzFeed coming to life in a new community app.
Because social networks are exactly that, platforms that facilitate user contributions, not a showcase of certain publications. Which Peretti is well aware of, and given his knowledge of the sector, and long-standing presence in the field, it will be interesting what he comes up with to drive that activity.
And I do agree with virtually everything that Peretti’s saying, in regards to the way that social media platforms and digital algorithms have infected how we approach things, filtering everything into binary, tribal sensationalism.
Publications that want to stay afloat are almost forced into taking sides, and that “us against them” approach eventually permeates and gestates into more entrenched attitudes that reinforce division.
The information ecosystem is broken, but really, the only way to fix it is to change the incentives of the platforms themselves, to ensure that accuracy is rewarded over engagement.
And even that won’t stop people from clicking on the most sensational takes, while it also leads to potential bias in such selection.
But again, Peretti knows all this, better than you or I, and as such, it’ll be interesting to see what approach he takes to address it.
You can sign up for the waitlist for BuzzFeed’s new project here.
