Background

There was a time when people used to write letters to their loved ones. A piece of paper, a pen, and an envelope; combinedly were the mediums for sharing information. Through the ink, we used to cover all our emotions and expected a similar return from the person we sent it to.

Before the mid-20th century, there were only a few technologies through which people could communicate from a far distance. There were only wire-based technologies like telephone and fax. Only the privileged members of society could use those. For the rest, it was all paper and a pen.

During that period, social interactions were only limited to a locality where people of nearby households often met each other in person. Friends were only made in the schools or playgrounds. Letters and Telephone calls took an infinite amount of time to make a two-person talk. That was the whole scenario of socialization in those days.

Then comes the Internet. Technology took a massive jump with this revolutionary invention. Computer devices could be linked with each other using telephone-based networks, and information could be passed-visualized and stored. In the beginning, this was only used for military and humanitarian purposes. Eventually, it evolved and opened for mass-level usage.

Web 1.0

The early internet era was composed of websites containing many web pages hyperlinked with each other. These web pages were simply static read-only visuals where a user could only see the information. It was also called Content Delivery Network (CDN), where companies used to showcase their business information or a website owner could publish news of their choice. Users had no other ability to interact with the websites except for viewing the pages. This era of the World Wide Web is called Web 1.0. In this era, users were only the consumers of informative content, nothing more than that. No social activities could be performed on the Internet via Web 1.0

Web 2.0

At the beginning of the 21st century, it was realized that the read-only existence of websites could not facilitate businesses or website owners with that much information about their user base. As a result, we entered a new web era where user's participatory culture was vastly emphasized. We redeveloped websites and Applications with the purpose of two-way communication. It provided the users the ability to sign up as individual website visitors and contribute their side of information to the websites. User-generated content like texts, photos, and comments was allowed to integrate with the websites. This phenomenon revolutionized socialization ability. All the users could now interact with each other via social web platforms. This second generation of websites is called Web 2.0 or the Social Web.

In 2004, a website called Facebook was launched as a social media website. It focused on providing free web services to any internet user to have an online identity and share their life events online. Connecting with friends and family who had their accounts became effortless. There were other similar web platforms, but only Facebook could show one-sided domination in the market. In 2006, another social media platform, Twitter, was launched with a different online socialization method than Facebook. In the beginning, Twitter was not that successful, but eventually, it gained an enormous user base.

Twitter & Facebook have been redefining the social media concept with billions of users. But countless other social platforms provide single-focused services like event organizing, dating, photos/video sharing, fundraising, etc. But all these social platforms run on a typical centralized control policy. As a result, there are so many setbacks that are arising for users while using these social platforms. Let's discuss some of them-

Data Privacy- On Web 2.0 social platforms, users share personal and social information. The activity of any user produces data for the platforms they use for targeted advertising. No matter the personality matrix of any user, he/she must see advertisements on their feed based on demographic angles.

Monopoly - So many new apps and networks have flooded our daily lives that it is nearly impossible to escape social media. But there is a very challenging part of social media: the Big Tech Monopoly. Facebook-Twitter & Google holds the square share of all the social media business. With billions of users, they can easily manipulate the dynamics. The big players can easily minimize any innovative measure by a minor player in the market by adopting an entirely copied feature to their platforms backed by billions of users. That makes the competition unfair.

Content Visibility- It is never the users who decide what they will be seeing after loading their social media feed. In disguise called "Suggestions" or "Recommendations," social platforms show any trending content or just getting promoted in a section of users. Users rarely understand the Blackbox algorithm these social platforms integrate to promote content.

Censorship- It is said, "There are always two sides to every story." Freedom of speech is regarded as the ultimate practice of human expression. Freethinkers, Social Activists have always spoken against injustice. Voice for the voiceless; is the only way to break the chain of oppression. But sometimes censorship becomes an obstacle to expressing true feelings.

Web 3.0 Social- The New Era

The latest version of Internet technology leverages AI (Artificial Intelligence), Machine Learning, & blockchain to achieve real-world human communication. This third generation of the Internet is called Web3.0. It interconnects data decentralized to provide a faster and more personalized user experience.

We have already discussed the major challenges users face while using web2.0 social platforms. As a result, the necessity of decentralized social media platforms is the time's call. And we can only do this by adopting web3.0 technologies.

Blockchain integration allows people to own their content and profile materials without any security concerns. It is not mandatory to equalize your personal and online identity. But at the same time, you can have sole ownership of any posts or relationships in a single timeframe. Any user with a decentralized identity can fully control the content visibility in his/her feed and make choices of advertisements. Where in web2 social platforms, online society is imposed on users, in web3 social networks, it can be composed.

Web3 Social Platforms also provide full-fledged support to content owners via genomics. Users who create value for the platform by creating high-quality content and moderating a thriving community are rewarded with crypto-based tokens that can rectify their performance and become strong community builders.

A few web3 social platforms have already been launched, gaining users daily. TELE protocol emerges as a gateway to onboard the next one billion users into Web3.