I have proposed that since Reddit and Slashdot have context editing features in their comment boxes, the ability on Reditt to use Markdown format, and the blockquote in HTML on Slashdot, that some of the failings of blogs, and with that the failings of Social Media, could be addressed.
But that is not quite true. The core weakness of Social Media is best characterized by the play on words in the above heading derived from the book title that was widely read to support the reason for Social Media, that the consensus within a crowd of people possessed a wisdom that matches or exceeds that of experts speaking on the same body of knowledge. A criticism of that book was that its research needed to show that the crowd consensus was unbiassed, and so in the hands of the power mongers that drive the business of Social Media, that becomes a cynical lie as it is their marketing that is attempting to bias the crowd and stampede the resulting mob.
It is the promotion mechanism of Social Media that degrades sites into babel that gives the lowest common denominator in people the greatest visibility. The lack of structure in blog postings doesn't help, but it is not the primary cause. The meaninglessness of the stream of topics and the way that most topics are the production of pimiley-faced boys with no means to avoid them is the real failing of Social Media. Different Social Media sites have different formulae for mediocherty. On Google+ is is shamless promotion, same as it is on LinkedIn. On Facebook it is trivia and shares from your so-called friends. For Social Media to work needs a good mute button and a selective filter; exactly what it lacks.
In an earlier post here, I advocated for a fixed topic hierarchy, one not driven by Social Media promotion. To a friend I expressed the opinion that the Commercial Internet in the form of Social Media was driving out, drowning out, other uses, that while I understood the self-promotion that the form it takes in Social Media was making other forms of communication more or less ineffective. It isn't that it is impossible to have a discussion on the Internet, in blogs, on websites, it is that the lack of tools for focused discussion and political correctness, even with a high level of verbal abuse, is hurting communication.
It is very difficult to find thoughtful exchanges on Social Media sites not only because of the deluge of cruft but because people get caught up in the game of promotion. I unfriended a friend on Facebook and muted everybody who was not family with few exceptions because they have all gotten caught up in sharing rather than writing original articles. I have shared, but I always write and original comment and I try to write more original articles than I share, but now I have reduced my use of Facebook drastically. I haven't left Facebook because I still want to see what my family are doing, but I don't have much to say. I feel that Facebook has harmed my relationships and I hope that the company fails as all of the rest of Social Media should fail.
What I hope for, what might restore some quality to communication, is for mobile devices to become more like desktop devices, even if it is to offer 80 column by 40 row character text fields to do away with the Twitter sized message. People will be able to say more, again, and they will be challenged to express themselves better. At the same time a more static topic hierarchy will replace the chaos of the promoted social media topic, creating better context and more accountability to people.