The Tinderization of the Internet

This is the Bowling Alley Theory of the Internet: that people are online purely to meet each other, and in the long run the venues where we congregate are an unimportant background compared to the interactions themselves. Did we meet on MySpace, Tinder, or LinkedIn? Does it matter?

From a business perspective, this centralization was a natural extension of the early internet — people were getting more connected, so just connect them  even more . Why have everyone make their own websites when everyone’s homepage could just be their Facebook page? Why try to track people down in IRC chat rooms when you could just talk to

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The next (and honestly current) phase of social media needs a better title. The internet is best for things related to curiosity, exploration, discovery, and expression. We need its title to better reflect + subconsciously instill that for users Yes, these platforms are… Show more

Twitter became about arguing, Instagram became about showing off, Facebook became about people you went to school with saying weird things. The most important role in a social network is the vibe designer, because the big questions are sociological, not technological.

For those who remember a time in the last century when things were less homogenous, and different geographic regions might have their own distinct music scenes or culinary traditions, it’s easy to understand the appeal of an online equivalent to different, connected neighborhoods that each have their own vibe. While this new, more diffuse set of so... See more