It’s not social. It’s television.
We still say "social network." We forgot what it meant.
Facebook started as a directory. Twitter was a public conversation. Instagram was a photo album. The idea was in the name: link up, don't just consume.
Then the business model took over. Attention pays better than connection. The feed replaced the conversation. The algorithm replaced the group. Almost nobody posts. Everyone else scrolls, alone, and calls it a social life.
It's not social. It's television with a personalization layer.
Alone, together
We've never been more "connected." Or more alone. That's not a bug. The platforms do exactly what they were built for: keep the thumb moving, not help two people meet on a street corner.
The generation that grew up inside this can see it. They talk about doomscrolling, delete apps, go outside to touch grass. They're right to laugh about it. This isn't a rejection of technology. It's just a higher bar. Tools that serve, not tools that harvest.
Start over
The question that makes me open the editor: what does social software look like if it aims at meeting people, not time spent? Slower, more local, closer to the sidewalk than the studio?
Not TikTok. Not even Facebook in 2005. More like a city than a media company. That's where WeWalk starts. Not to "humanize tech." So you don't walk home alone.
The old social network didn't go away. It's still in every pocket. It just stopped being social. Time to build another one.