After the Feed: Rebuilding Social Media

Somewhere in the last decade, social apps quietly changed jobs — from connecting you to people you know into keeping you watching whatever a machine ranked highest. This series is a field guide to what broke and what’s being built in its place: the pattern behind the last three social takeovers, the small apps already proving people want out, the openings nobody has fully built yet, and — for anyone who wants the mechanics — how you’d actually build a network that runs on trust and human presence instead of attention, and how it could pay for itself without selling you. Read it in order, or jump in anywhere.

1. Start hereSep 2026

   Why social media stopped feeling like connection

   Social apps quietly changed jobs — from connecting you to people to keeping you watching. Part 1 of a field guide to what broke, and what's being built to replace it.

2. Part 2Sep 2026

   How the last three social takeovers actually happened

   WhatsApp, Instagram, and Telegram didn't win by building a better version of the incumbent. Each caught an overlooked shift in hardware, networks, or trust — and there's a patte...

3. Part 3Oct 2026

   The apps quietly proving people want out

   Locket, Retro, Halide, and Instax look like unrelated novelties. They're actually a set of live experiments proving that constraint, authenticity, and tangible objects retain pe...

4. Part 4Oct 2026

   Three openings nobody has fully built

   Combine the proven pieces — constraint, authenticity, tangibility — and three product openings appear: a verified-camera network, a darkroom that mails you things, and an ambien...