Alexis Ohanian Says He's A 'techno Optimist,' Despite Social Media's Impact On Society
Does Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian regret creating it? Speaking at an event at the University of Virginia, the entrepreneur and founder of venture capitalist Seven Seven Six had a negative outlook on the social media landscape and the creative economy this year. And now it's just about getting likes and endorsements and votes... I wish I could be more optimistic about it, but that's what we're seeing. A recent speech by Marc Andreessen, general partner of 16z, in which he claimed that technology will solve all our problems, is a clear indication.
"I'm guilty," Ohanian said in an interview with Cora Swisher. "I think the pendulum is swinging back. I think it's even faster than we think." He pointed out that the war in the Middle East could be a turning point because it is now "absolutely clear" that we need something better to understand the world than the current platforms.
As you can imagine, the founder left Reddit in 2020 due to disagreements over size and his desire to control violent and hateful communities. It was a moment when he seemed to have stepped onto the stage. He then asked a black councilman to replace him on the council. The company agreed, naming Black as its first board member along with Y Combinator partner Michael Seibel.
Reddit banned several toxic communities, including r/Donaldtrup, after the violence at the US Capitol, and Ohanian said the site has "obviously gotten better" as a business.
But when it comes to social media in general, Reddit is considered to be used, said Ohanian, who "brings out the worst aspects of our nature in many ways." We are also concerned about people's desire to be the first and win any level on the platform, which leads to the spread of false information.
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"There's a lot of desire these days to be first and UGC, personalized content, always wins. However, that's not always true. But it will be the center of the conversation. And then I'll say, 'What percentage of our people take a deep breath and let's put the judgment aside and Let's wait for people to do the work, summarize and answer me. He continued.
“We're very connected to all these stories, whether they come from traditional media, whether they come from consumers, whether they come from somebody on their phone, you know, and whether it's posted. In the Telegram group. We are too busy and stressed, and it is unfortunately challenging. The bad sides of many of our instincts,” Ohanian added.
Some questions about the evolution of social media platforms are partly about how the companies were created in the first place. Ohanian, for example, said Reddit grew out of a discussion forum in college, believing that the online community was the same as the offline community. When Reddit became a multibillion-dollar company with hundreds of millions of users, he said, he never imagined how influential the site would one day become. He said the idea would be "ridiculous". And he never thought that a startup could be successful enough to influence elections and democracy.
“I'm just thinking, oh my God, I'm going to bring this up, this is going to have a huge impact on democracy, this is going to require a level of error that I couldn't even make as the first chief executive. "It was definitely a blind spot," he said.
Ohanian says another part of the problem is that more people are online today than the technology's early founders imagined. While the expansion of access to technology has been fortunate, it has also created many problems.
"What I miss the most is that I don't like the idea that the Internet is an ivory tower," he said, adding that on the other hand, we're all exposed to more people than ever before. before. no way. , we offer. This can lead to people clashing with each other and conflicting with different versions of the truth, even if their reality is to believe that the Earth is flat, citing the following example from Reddit:
In the meantime, he said, asking platforms like Facebook, Twitter or Reddit to take responsibility for checking truth and accuracy is a tall order. Ohanian called Tik Tok "an arm of the Chinese government", which is very good at "feeding us what we want and when we want", in other words, it is not always a source of truth.
Regardless, Ohanian credits Twitter (now called X) with creating the best moderation system in history.
“Community Feedback: I personally think it's great, the best option I've ever seen. And frankly, I wish we'd thought of it earlier,” he said.
However, he expressed the idea that the arena could be like X's town square.
“The square [analog]… collapses. If it is a square, what does it mean, city or town? If you are responsible for this, you are the mayor, but there are no democratic elections,” Ohanian said. You are the CEO. So you look like a king. Perfect if you want to see the town square. Believe me and say yes, this is the square and I am an endless bully, a tyrant. what".
Despite the challenges and benefits of social media in terms of its impact on society, Ohania suggests there is still some hope. For example, he notes that the founders in which his 776 funds invest are smarter and more knowledgeable than those their age. Perhaps the next platforms will still be addictive, but he thinks "in a way that will not harm democracy in the future".
It also suggests that after social media does everything for us, our brains begin to crave things we don't have. "I think we're going to see a resurgence of live meetings and in-person meetings... I hope the silver lining is that it keeps us connected to our humanity and things that no AI can replace."
"I want to look at the situation in a positive light," Ohanian added. "And I think there's still room to move forward, but we're grappling with very, very strong human characteristics. And if we can solve it, it's going to have a lot of benefits. It's probably because we know that we have more in common than anything else," he said.
