Ask HN: What will social networking look like in 2020 (bigger whatsapp, insta)?

Something more genuine; think older fb (writing on people's walls), snapchat. Facebook/Insta in 2018 is basically a social linkedin - used to showcase yourself as a person. Most people check Insta as a filter for dates.

I think the new generation of social media should focus on smaller groups of friends (5-30), but it should be possible to publish to wider groups. Sounds like google+ circles, but I think snapchat was closer. Short, real snippets from peoples lives.

That saud, I'd guessing that any successful social media app then would be:

1. Mostly private, because the over arching fears of survelliance and spying and a lack of privacy do seem to be getting to people, as does the media's tendency to take random jokes/comments and blow them out of proportion.

I think that's why Discord has caught on so much with young people now. Because stuff like Reddit being public meant their communities ended up coming under fire for every little controversy, and they constantly had teachers/employers/media folk looking there for things that could get them in trouble/cause drama. So invite only and private is likely a big part of any future platform's setup.

2. Probably more image/video based than text based. We're seeing a move away from text in general nowadays with stuff like YouTube and Twitch being mainstream, and the likes of Instagram/Snapchat/Pinterest just make that even clearer.

But it's hard to tell really. Could honestly be anything.

Furthermore, pooling social circles as such tends to fuel a social competition that distracts you with vanity metrics (e.g. likes/followers) and sucks the fun out of connecting with others.

I'm building a product called Saturday[0] to solve this problem. It's a video app that's built for groups. You can create private groups and any member can add videos they capture with the built-in camera.

[0]: https://thesaturdayapp.com