Post-news platforms

Read it first on my Substack

Recent Pew data tells a clear story of transition in social media usage. The established platforms — Twitter and Facebook — are in decline with young users. TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat are on the rise. Twitch appears lower down but is still notable; Discord doesn’t appear at all, but is similarly popular with this demographic. Combine that with the ongoing turmoil at the major platforms, and a paradigm shift seems underway.

That shift seems poised to remake the news and information landscape. Consider an additional set of recent Pew results:

A third of TikTok users regularly go to the platform for news. This is among the largest share of any major social media platform, and it’s the fastest growing by far. TikTok, in other words, is quickly becoming a dominant site of news consumption online.

There is cause for concern in that surge. Many news organizations do not use TikTok, limiting the range of credible journalism a user might consume. In addition, news…