Will external linking be dead soon?

I have been having some interesting discussions recently and a topic that has started to gain some traction is that external links will be something from the past soon – to clarify what I mean by that is say for example linking to your youtube video from facebook. Metas AI on facebook has started to clamp down on spam recently and I asked a few people who asked a few people and it seems that the general consensus is that the crack down is just a way to keep people on facebook longer, rather than sending them off site. Now that started alarm bells ringing as the tinternet would change massively if that is the way it is going, but it still seems that is the plan. So what does this mean, in general, for your average social media user. Well, straight away, not much right now, but as they continue to clamp down, what it will mean is a lot of choices. Eventually a user will basically have to choose 1 platform and stick with it, if there is a cost to that, well that is there choice, as I can see it meaning that the days of the free account will be gone. Obviously not for all platforms, but at the moment this seems to be what Meta, X, Google seem to want. Like being an iphone user and realistically needing a subscription to icloud for when your phone breaks and/or you upgrade. These subscriptions bring in large amounts of cash, and are how these platforms plan to move forward as their costs continue to rise. It also means that they won’t have to sell every bit of data they hold on you a million times over…. so it is a win/win – or is it?

Well for some people, yes it will be win/win. If you are only a facebook/meta user then I guess it could be a win. You keep your 10 yr old facebook account with pics of the kids and friends, and they get your cash. But just spare a thought for all those writers, content creators etc. who will suddenly be out of a job if THEY chose the wrong platform. If videos are your thing you’d have to pay for a youtube premium account and be on there for all your content creation if it goes the way it is looking like going. Your choice of platform will be very very important, and having multiple accounts will only be for those who make a lot of content and earn a lot as well. Little Jo(e) who has a couple of hundred subscribers would soon cease to be as they wouldn’t be able to afford to do it unless they had a steady stream of income from somewhere else. Those news sites that turn out content and send you off from facebook to read will be gone after a few months, and messenger scams sending you elsewhere will also be gone…. I mean in a lot of cases it will be great, but would you ever see a balanced set of articles or news, of course you won’t, and clickbait would be through the roof to get an income. You would also see the rise of popups and ads on external sites as they fight to make some money – just look at news websites where paywalls are everywhere to begin to realise what sort of hell that would be….

Everyone I talked to thought this is what will happen eventually unless things change. The big platforms are struggling with many things, just look at engagement on facebook that has plummeted recently with posts that used to get hundreds of likes and comments getting hardly any. There are still the posts that do get interaction, but they are less and less. X has banned like counts, and you have to pay now to edit your X’s (tweets is so much better!). I can say with my hand on my heart that the new direction these platforms are going isn’t to my liking, and is one of the reasons I don’t post on facebook any more except from the automagic links from websites I run. I don’t even have to mention the privacy and annoyingness of the @highlight and @everyone tags, suggested groups/pages/post that litter it now and which as far as I can see is why facebook for a lot of people has dropped off a cliff in usefulness. The same sort of things are happening across all the platforms though, and as they scrabble to get money it will only increase…

So what are people thoughts – I know that interaction like I am proposing is out of date nowadays, but it would be nice for a discussion. Un til the next time – be safe out there and be kind!