Today's Article (17/9/2025)
The Last Days of Social Media (Noema Mag)
But now, the model is splintering, and users are drifting toward smaller, slower, more private spaces, like group chats, Discord servers and federated microblogs — a billion little gardens.
The successor to mass social media is, as already noted, emerging not as a single platform, but as a scattering of alleyways, salons, encrypted lounges and federated town squares — those little gardens.
The most radical redesign of social media might be the most familiar: What if we treated these platforms as public utilities rather than private casinos?
Imagine social media platforms with transparent algorithms subject to public audit, user representation on governance boards, revenue models based on public funding or member dues rather than surveillance advertising, mandates to serve democratic discourse rather than maximize engagement, and regular impact assessments that measure not just usage but societal effects.