Social Media Evolution

Either way, what has been lost since the era of the human search engine is the joy of a distinct voice—while we can now find out almost anything automatically, the answer won’t be delivered with warmth or flair.

So what is it about these puzzles that has people so invested? “Honestly, it all just tickles a very nerdy, repressed part of my brain,” says 25-year-old Chess, who plays the New York Times games every day. With most of us addicted to our phones, spending hours each day mindlessly scrolling, puzzles offer a simple and satisfying way to use our brai... See more

Now that we’re on the other side of these consequences, I can no longer kid myself. It’s time to stop ceding our humanity to these platforms. It’s time to invest back into IRL community. It’s time to stop 24/7 scrolling social media—you will not find the answers there.

Social media once promised to be a global public square, connecting communities and sparking creativity. Yet, under the control of billionaires and venture capital driven control, it has devolved into a tool for personal gain, corporate agendas, and declining user experience. Project FreeOurFeeds envisions a better future, one where community, capi... See more

If that’s the case, humans who want to engage with other humans and their creations may, for the first time in decades, have to avoid the internet and— gasp —return to the real world for authenticity. Sure, you won’t find shrimp Jesus there, but at least you’ll find some genuine human connection.

Rewilding the internet is more than a metaphor. It’s a framework and plan. It gives us fresh eyes for the wicked problem of extraction and control, and new means and allies to fix it. It recognizes that ending internet monopolies isn’t just an intellectual problem. It’s an emotional one. It answers questions like: How do we keep going when the mono... See more

Perhaps playing these puzzles and sharing our experiences of them is strangely democratising, particularly when a lot of the content we see online is widely aspirational and unrealistic. These free puzzles are something anyone can do, knowing thousands of others are doing the same.

Algorithms, or at least the ones used by social media platforms, were supposed to be about discovery. But now they’re operating more like those daytime HGTV home decorating shows. “Oh, you like horses? We turned your house into a fake stable. Your dinner table is now bales of hay.”

Brides-to-be (Taylor, almost certainly, excluded) are treating their bachelorette parties like influencer campaigns, flooding small brands with requests for free swag in exchange for TikTok hauls and Instagram posts. On TikTok, one woman admitted to emailing over 200 companies; others share spreadsheets of brand contacts and scripts to maximize the... See more