Severin Matusek

My friend Chris Beiser says that social forms are a kind of capital that is essential to the structure of society and production. To put it a bit differently, the repertoire of forms dictates the kinds of lives that are available to us.

Our information system has split into an endless number of micro communities, from group chats to online fandoms, all learning about news and major events through increasingly bizarre digital formats.

When I polled a group of friends, one person heard the news in the comment section of a bird's Instagram account, another learned of it in a Discord ... See more

But mostly they just drop cool pictures and funny memes, and discuss or riff on them. “There’s an understanding that, like, you’re not going to kick each other, you’re not going to judge each other,” he said. “You’re not here to represent your identity; you’re just here to chill.”

It’s like eating macaroni and cheese every single night forever: it may be comfortable, but eventually you’re going to get scurvy. 

The role of a successful place is to provide a catalytic context for missions.

Digital belongings exist on the internet, but there aren’t that many types of them. On Fortnite you can acquire guns and outfits. On Reddit you gain badges. Point is: There’s a lot of stuff on the internet, but there isn’t much stuff that’s yours.