What happens when quality journalism becomes a status symbol? When it’s no longer a
“nice to have”?
Today, social media has mastered the idea of playing to people's egos through likes, followers, etc. Readocracy is mapping that recognition and sense of self to how informed you are on a subject, and how you can present that and be recognized for it. Media will benefit the most from rewarding people for the quality of attention they give, rather than just quantity of attention they can get from these same people.
Hand-in-hand with the shift in social media will be the inevitable transformation of the media landscape. Until now, focusing on well-researched longer content was a disadvantage. You were throwing away ad dollars. Increasing volume and making it more provocative was the way to win. It was a well-known, almost inevitable race to the bottom. It has defined the internet, our media, and our popular culture.
For the first time, we will see what happens when there is a viable alternative: an incentive for a race-to-the-top. When the content you consume can be tied to your public identity, social status, social inclusion, rewards, and economic mobility. Every crappy, I’d-rather-people-didn’t-know-I’m-reading-this page will now have an opportunity cost. In the past, it didn’t. The inverse will be true, too.
We have been used to living in a world where content, no matter how good, has been a "nice to have". The value was intangible. There has been no reason to prioritize it financially. We will see what happens when there is.
Until now, we had our attention extracted. Web3 already showed the appetite for a more equitable model. Where all the time we invest can count. Social platforms won by turning audience time into accrued identity value: status, personal recognition and representation, and connections that feel meaningful. Publishers will now have this at their disposal.
In 10 years, every internet user will expect to not just have their attention extracted, or justified, but rewarded and recognized.
Social media where the quality of attention you give matters as much as the quantity of attention you get.
Background reading:
A Humble Proposal To Turn The Internet Upside DownRight now, our feeds can only be optimized around grabbing attention. There’s no way of optimizing for subject matter expertise. Think: how would you sort your feed for credibility? How could the platforms?
Today we can’t, resulting in status and power being attached only to distraction. The quality is formally irrelevant. Readocracy makes it a formal component that can be used in algorithms as well. Turning the effort we put into educating ourselves on a subject, and the credibility, breadth, and balance of what we share, into status instead. Transparently and fairly.
In other words, the future of social media includes an incentive to spend time with, and share, the most credible, informative content, rather than only the most provocative. Add this to the inevitable rise of algorithmic control — something Readocracy is pioneering alongside a rising tide that already includes Bluesky — and we can count on a future where social media isn’t mindless, but mindful. Normalizing awareness, intentionality, and context, rather than the status quo that avoids all three.
Next: thriving quality journalism