Hip SXSW Media Conference to Probe the Dark Social
February 4, 2016
This year’s SXSW Conferences & Festivals will be exploring the world of Dark Social, a term introduced by The Atlantic senior editor Alexis C. Madrigal in “Dark Social: We Have the Whole History of the Web Wrong.”
In a SWSX interview, Marc Jensen, Chief Technology Officer of space150 and his associate Greg Swan, Vice President of Public Relations talked about Dark Social and the perception of privacy. They also shared their thoughts on the shift from traditional social sites such as Facebook and Twitter to more alluring Dark Social. In my view their main point was:
This [no referrer data] means that this vast trove of social traffic is essentially invisible to most analytics programs. I call it Dark Social. It shows up variously in programs as “direct” or “typed/bookmarked” traffic, which implies to many site owners that you actually have a bookmark or typed in www.theatlantic.com into your browser. But that’s not actually what’s happening a lot of the time. Most of the time, someone Gchatted someone a link, or it came in on a big email distribution list, or your dad sent it to you. Nonetheless, the idea that “social networks” and “social media” sites created a social web is pervasive. Everyone behaves as if the traffic your stories receive from the social networks (Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, StumbleUpon) is the same as all of your social traffic.
Bob Lefsetz speaks about the differences in social behaviors in The Lefsetz Letter states:
Oldsters are rarely early adopters. They know the value of money, they’re set in their ways. For all the old bloviators bemoaning the loss of privacy online, it’s the kids who got the memo, that if they post pictures of illicit activity they might not get a job in the future. Kids believe in evanescence, oldsters believe in the permanent record.
These differences in social behavior are not only generational, they are transformational. Children and young adults want the freedom to say and do as they please, particularly when it comes to social sites. The more ephemeral the site, the less inhibited they feel. There is a sense of false safety on Snapchat, WeChat and WhatsApp then there is on Facebook or Twitter.Are young people soon to be pawns in a dangerous game of criminal “pickle?”
Dark Social network more likely than not will become breeding grounds for predators. Dark Social could prove to be one of the most powerful tools in criminal’s toolkit. This begs the question: Do the benefits of privacy outweigh the dangers of corruption?
Martin A. Matisoff, MSc, February 4, 2016
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