Social Media Evolution

Large parasocial platforms transformed the internet into a hostile and impersonal place. They feed our FOMO to keep us clicking. They exaggerate our differences for "engagement". They create engines for stardom to keep us creeping. They bait us into nutritionless and sensationalist content. Humanity cannot subsist on hype alone.

Small and sincere... See more

Young people are rapidly becoming dedicated fans of New York Times Games like Connections and Strands, playing them obsessively and sharing their experiences on social media platforms like TikTok. To answer the question posed in the headline: Because social media sucks, and everyone wants to escape!

“But then you get used to it all, is the problem,” she continued. “I feel like I’m not trying as hard anymore. When I had the flip phone, I had to put in effort to get to places, to talk to people. Everything was a task. Now it’s easy to do things. I guess I still don’t like needing the crutch of a smartphone, though I couldn’t figure out how to go... 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.

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... 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.

When TikTok was briefly shut down last month, the app’s more than 150 million American users had the same sudden realization. The platform’s centrality to human connection was made explicit and intolerable. Billions of social ties were erased by forces unseen and beyond our control. We had built this online world only to find that it did not belong... See more

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... See more

When we simplify complex systems, we destroy them, and the devastating consequences sometimes aren’t obvious until it’s too late.