Communities are different online and off, and pluralism that thrives in the real world can turn toxic in the digital world.
How Social Media Tricks our Brains — and Destroys our Politics - Aaron Ross Powell's Blog
Pluralistic: Social media without socializing (19 Jan 2026) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
From the earliest days of social media, social media bosses have been at war with sociability. To create a social media service is to demarcate legitimate and illegitimate forms of sociability. It's a monumental act of hubris, really.
Leaflet, Blogging, and How to Fix Social Media - Aaron Ross Powell
Decentralization, network overlap, and why we should all blog, too.
Field Notes: The Architecture of Rationalization - Aaron Ross Powell
Marginalia on the internet turning bad, platform extraction, and existential restlessness.
Pluralistic: Post-American compute for a post-American Internet (04 Aug 2026) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
Obviously, the non-American world has a digital sovereignty problem – Trump has means, motive and opportunity to order his tech companies to shut down any public official, large corporation, or individual who displeases him:
The Case for a Public Social Media Platform - JSTOR Daily
Artist and writer Joshua Citarella explores why corporate platforms corrode democracy—and what a postal-service-style digital commons could do differently.
Bluesky COO Rose Wang On Building a Better Social Network
Reclaiming Social Spaces: Are Open Source Platforms a Path for More Human Connection?
What if social media platforms were built to serve their communities, not billionaires? Join us with the founders of Blacksky as we explore the potential of open source social media.
Shifts in U.S. Social Media Use, 2020–2024: Decline, Fragmentation, and Enduring Polarization
The social media ecosystem appears to be in flux. Twitter’s rebranding to X has come to symbolize a broader reorganization of online publics – political reshuffling, user attrition, and uncertainty over the role of legacy platforms. Simultaneously, the shift from text-based, networked feeds toward algorithmically curated, short-form video has accelerated, with TikTok setting the pace for the wider ecosystem [18, 14, 16]. At the same time, everyday communication increasingly migrates from large, open networks to semi-private spaces such as group chats and messaging apps. Commentators describe a digital public sphere in transition: smaller, more fragmented, less dominated by traditional social networking sites, and rise of more broadcast-oriented forms of media – with some even suggesting that we are seeing the beginning of the end of the social media era.
Decentralized Social Media | The Paper Pilot
The Paper Pilot's digital garden of thoughts on philosophy, politics, and sociology
Blacksky
Decentralized social media built for community power, culture, and collective freedom.
Blacksky
Decentralized social media built for community power, culture, and collective freedom.
Social Media | The Paper Pilot
The Paper Pilot's digital garden of thoughts on philosophy, politics, and sociology
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
Empowering Users, Not Overlords: Overcoming Digital Helplessness
Disclosure: I’m on the board of Bluesky, so feel free to take as many grains of salt as you want in reading it, though all of it applies equally to other decentralized social media ecosys…
Pluralism is great in cities and can turn toxic in digital spaces like Bluesky. This isn't a problem with pluralism, but with the structure of digital spaces. Fortunately, there's a pretty simple solution to keep the benefits of vast online communities while quieting their most toxic residents.
Social Media and Anti-Social Pluralism
www.aaronrosspowell.com