when it comes to feeling connected — feeling known — it doesn’t matter if you have a thousand followers, or once shared a smoothie with so-and-so microcelebrity, or founded a Web3 collective that we totally all agree is revolutionizing capitalism and not a scam or whatever. What matters is having 1-5 people who are really excited to spend time with... See more

- Now that there are billions of people online, it’s much easier to connect with individuals who share your same interests

These are not mass arenas; they are clubs — opt-in spaces with boundaries, where people remember who you are. And they are often paywalled, or at least heavily moderated, which at the very least keeps the bots out. What’s being sold is less a product than a sense of proximity, and while the economics may be similar, the affective atmosphere is... See more