Another new year is upon us, and as we try to stick to our resolutions, the start of the year gives us an opportunity to consider what might happen in the social media landscape in the next 12 months. 2021 was a huge and turbulent year for social media, with its role in the January 6 Insurrection hitting the headlines, followed by the rebrand of the Facebook group to Meta, Jack Dorsey’s resignation as Twitter’s CEO, and of course the continued pressure on social media outlets to end the spread of disinformation on their platforms. But what do emerging trends and recent activity tell us about what could be in store for the social media world?
Will Clubhouse remain popular in 2022?
When Clubhouse exploded onto the scene in 2021 as the fastest-growing social media app in history, Silicon Valley was awash with stories about the live audio discussion app becoming the future of social media. Aiming to convince users accustomed to communicating online by image, video and text to turn to audio instead, Clubhouse offered more than previous, less sophisticated audio chatrooms, with the inclusion of opt-in audio spaces with varying levels of privacy. This addressed issues with the intimacy of the format that had contributed to opinions, such as that of social media expert Stephanie Morgan, that “audio-based social networking is a relatively new concept, but it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon”.
Things were looking up for Clubhouse in February 2021, when it received a whopping 9.6 million downloads. The app was initially invite-only, with accounts selling on eBay for hundreds of dollars, although it later moved away from this model. Today, anyone can open an account. However, as 2021 came to an end, the rate of Clubhouse’s growth dwindled as larger competitors introduced similar features, including Twitter’s Spaces and Facebook’s Live Audio Rooms.
Although Clubhouse is reaching new demographics as it continues to expand in international markets, its future may depend on whether it can find a way to offer something unique and compete with the giants on the social media stage once again.
Extended reality (XR) continues to gain prominence
A rising number of people engaging in social media during the height of the pandemic, coupled with a surge in the development of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) technology, has led to some fascinating advances in extended reality in the social media realm. As apps continue to compete for consumers, AR and VR have provided the perfect opportunity for social media businesses to create more immersive experiences: these new technologies are no longer the fantasies of sci-fi, but are now becoming part of the everyday online experience for many.
In 2021, Meta (formerly Facebook) announced Horizon, a collection of apps (Horizon Worlds, Horizon Venues, and Horizon Workrooms) that use virtual reality “to create meaningful connections between people and foster a strong sense of community”. The apps have made it possible for people to work together, play together, and communicate in new ways, even when distances separate them. Another tech giant, Microsoft, has also announced a new VR platform, Mesh, which can be used on the already popular Teams app.
Whilst AR and VR look set to be an important part of the future of social media, there are concerns about how privacy can be regulated within the new technology, particularly relating to the data that can be tracked by VR. This data is often highly personal, with the advancing extended reality technology even capable of collecting biometric data such as how a user’s eyes behave when online, giving tech companies increasingly detailed levels of information about individuals and their behaviour. There are calls for much tighter scrutiny and regulation of this technology and the data that is collected.
Managing misinformation in 2022
Misinformation spreads like wildfire, with millions of users sharing information online without checking the legitimacy of the source – and it is becoming increasingly harder to spot. So, what could happen in the year ahead to combat misinformation online?
Regulation is likely to be key, with a new Online Safety Bill going through parliament in the UK, which aims to make social media and the wider online world a safer place to be. Social media platforms have a wide reach and therefore great power, but this also comes with great responsibility. The Online Safety Bill places a duty of care on social media platforms to protect their many users, with Parliament introducing harsher punishments to ensure the companies regulate their apps more strictly. It will be interesting to see how the Bill will inform changes in social media governance over the coming year, and how companies might adjust to increased regulatory oversight.
What exactly lies ahead for 2022 in the social media space remains to be seen. It is likely that innovative new players will emerge, some smaller existing platforms may struggle or be acquired by the giants, and VR and AR technology will play an increasingly important role. As technology enables the collection of ever more personal data, regulation and privacy will be brought to the fore. As always, we’ll be monitoring with interest throughout what looks to be another fascinating and fast-paced year for social media developments.
Privacy Policy.
Revoke consent.
© Digitalis Media Ltd. Privacy Policy.
Digitalis
We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.
To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.
If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email webrequests@digitalis.com
Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:
Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all of the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.
These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.
Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside of it.
Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers), both for Windows and for MAC users.
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to webrequests@digitalis.com