how to look at social media

Social media algorithms can be redesigned to bridge divides — here’s how

"It falls to both the tech companies that built these systems and an engaged public to create technologies designed for social cohesion."

Agency Among Agents: Designing with Hypertextual Friction in the Algorithmic Web

Today's algorithm-driven interfaces, from recommendation feeds to GenAI tools, often prioritize engagement and efficiency at the expense of user agency. As systems take on more decision-making, users have less control over what they see and how meaning or relationships between content are constructed. This paper introduces "Hypertextual Friction," a conceptual design stance that repositions classical hypertext principles--friction, traceability, and structure--as actionable values for reclaiming agency in algorithmically mediated environments. Through a comparative analysis of real-world interfaces--Wikipedia vs. Instagram Explore, and Are.na vs. GenAI image tools--we examine how different systems structure user experience, navigation, and authorship. We show that hypertext systems emphasize provenance, associative thinking, and user-driven meaning-making, while algorithmic systems tend to obscure process and flatten participation. We contribute: (1) a comparative analysis of how interface structures shape agency in user-driven versus agent-driven systems, and (2) a conceptual stance that offers hypertextual values as design commitments for reclaiming agency in an increasingly algorithmic web.

Agency Among Agents: Designing with Hypertextual Friction in the Algorithmic Web

Today's algorithm-driven interfaces, from recommendation feeds to GenAI tools, often prioritize engagement and efficiency at the expense of user agency. As systems take on more decision-making, users have less control over what they see and how meaning or relationships between content are constructed. This paper introduces "Hypertextual Friction," a conceptual design stance that repositions classical hypertext principles--friction, traceability, and structure--as actionable values for reclaiming agency in algorithmically mediated environments. Through a comparative analysis of real-world interfaces--Wikipedia vs. Instagram Explore, and Are.na vs. GenAI image tools--we examine how different systems structure user experience, navigation, and authorship. We show that hypertext systems emphasize provenance, associative thinking, and user-driven meaning-making, while algorithmic systems tend to obscure process and flatten participation. We contribute: (1) a comparative analysis of how interface structures shape agency in user-driven versus agent-driven systems, and (2) a conceptual stance that offers hypertextual values as design commitments for reclaiming agency in an increasingly algorithmic web.

moltbook - the front page of the agent internet

A social network built exclusively for AI agents. Where AI agents share, discuss, and upvote. 🦞🤖

moltbook - the front page of the agent internet

A social network built exclusively for AI agents. Where AI agents share, discuss, and upvote. 🦞🤖

moltbook - the front page of the agent internet

A social network built exclusively for AI agents. Where AI agents share, discuss, and upvote. 🦞🤖

Social media is a gnarly coordination problem we need to decompose - a warm space

Social media is populist and polarising; AI may be the opposite

Large language models elevate expert consensus and moderate views, in sharp contrast to social platforms

Publishing on the Agentic Web · Luma

Publishing has been built around a human reader. What happens when agents become the way readers find and engage with content? As AI agents increasingly read,…

Custodians of the Internet

A revealing and gripping investigation into how social media platforms police what we post online—and the large societal impact of these decisions Most use...

From Feeds to Trails

To design the future of social media, rethink the interface before the algorithm.

Towards a Post-Social Media Studies

For two decades, "social media" has been the master lens through which scholars have understood digital communication—an era defined by user-generated content, networked publics, and participatory culture. That era is drawing to a close. This paper argues that three interrelated dynamics are dissolving the social media paradigm: an algorithmic shift from social-graph-based to interest-based recommendation, which is remaking the active "user" into a passive "viewer"; the generative AI revolution, which is replacing user-generated content with synthetic media and decoupling platforms from any dependence on human participation; and an exodus from public platforms toward private, closed spaces. Together, these dynamics are giving rise to three distinct post-social formations: algorithmically governed broadcasting platforms, semi-private spheres and micro-communities, and AI-mediated communication as a new media form in its own right. Understanding this transformation demands a fundamental reorientation of the field—new conceptual tools that move beyond networked publics and participatory culture, new methods suited to synthetic and ephemeral media environments, and renewed attention to the political stakes of communication systems that no longer require human participation.