In 2004, the social network site was set up to connect people. But now, with lives increasingly played out online, have we forgotten how to be alone?
Friend of a Friend: The Facebook That Could Have Been
Why didn't the FOAF standard give us distributed social networking in the 2000s?
Loneliness is taking friend-making apps mainstream
Post-pandemic loneliness is driving young adults to seek friends more intentionally.
What is Causing Our Epidemic of Loneliness and How Can We Fix It?
Researchers share what Americans have to say about social disconnection and potential solutions
Loneliness epidemic
The concept of a "loneliness epidemic" relating to rising rates of social isolation was first described in the 2000s. Robert D. Putnam's 2000 study Bowling Alone was an early instance of describing loneliness as an epidemic, arguing that decreased participation in civic life and community groups was weakening social bonds in the United States.[5]
The Difficulty Of Private Contact Discovery
Building a social network is not easy. Social networks have value proportional to their size, so participants aren’t motivated to join new social networks which aren’t already large. It’s a paradox where if people haven’t already joined, people aren’t motivated to join. The trouble is that whi...
Can We Build a Better Facebook? - JSTOR Daily
Is it time to turn our back on Facebook? And if so, what social network could possibly replace it?
Researchers Confront an Epidemic of Loneliness (Published 2016)
Social isolation is linked to physical illness and to functional and cognitive decline. Programs to reach out to the elderly are growing, particularly in Britain.
RIP social media. What comes next is messy.
As social media splinters, how can we keep the new online spaces from devolving into toxic pits of despair?
sammy on Twitter / X
Late-stage capitalism figured out how to monetize loneliness.Erase third spaces. Make going out too expensive. Work people too hard to keep up friendships.Then sell the emptiness back as dating apps, delivery, streaming, and subscriptions.Isolation as recurring revenue.…— sammy (@_itzsammy) October 28, 2026
Anonymity, pseudonymity, and the agency of online identity: Examining the social practices of r/Gonewild
A debate is currently raging regarding the value of anonymity online. On one side of the debate is Facebook, the world’s largest social network site. Facebook demands that people use their real names and is one of the leading forces behind the push towards a “real name” Internet. On the other side of the debate are scholars such as danah boyd and Bernie Hogan and sites such as 4chan and Reddit that view anonymity and pseudonymity as important to how people construct identity online. While much has been written about the benefits of anonymity and pseudonymity, there is a lack of published research examining specific practices enabled by pseudonyms. This paper provides a detailed account of the behaviors enabled through pseudonymous identity construction through a case study of the subreddit r/gonewild. The main contribution of the article is to provide a specific account of the costs of a totalizing embrace of the “real name” Internet.
Anonymity, pseudonymity, and the agency of online identity: Examining the social practices of r/Gonewild
A debate is currently raging regarding the value of anonymity online. On one side of the debate is Facebook, the world’s largest social network site. Facebook demands that people use their real names and is one of the leading forces behind the push towards a “real name” Internet. On the other side of the debate are scholars such as danah boyd and Bernie Hogan and sites such as 4chan and Reddit that view anonymity and pseudonymity as important to how people construct identity online. While much has been written about the benefits of anonymity and pseudonymity, there is a lack of published research examining specific practices enabled by pseudonyms. This paper provides a detailed account of the behaviors enabled through pseudonymous identity construction through a case study of the subreddit r/gonewild. The main contribution of the article is to provide a specific account of the costs of a totalizing embrace of the “real name” Internet.
Facebook Gets Older: Demographic Report Shows 3 Million Teens Left Social Network In 3 Years
A new report from digital marketing agency iStrategyLabs shows exactly how many teens have abandoned Facebook.
Facebook’s AI Spam Isn’t the ‘Dead Internet’: It’s the Zombie Internet
Facebook is the zombie internet, where a mix of bots, humans, and accounts that were once humans but aren’t anymore interact to form a disastrous website where there is little social connection at all.
Facebook’s AI Spam Isn’t the ‘Dead Internet’: It’s the Zombie Internet
Facebook is the zombie internet, where a mix of bots, humans, and accounts that were once humans but aren’t anymore interact to form a disastrous website where there is little social connection at all.
The Internet is Full of Strangers | The Paper Pilot
The Paper Pilot's digital garden of thoughts on philosophy, politics, and sociology
'I felt exposed online': how to disappear from the internet
Worried about what’s out there about you? You’re not alone. But is it even possible to become a digital ghost?
