After the Simulation
For years, American social media giants have been slouching toward a TikTok-style experience. Instead of connecting us with content from friends, family, and chosen brands, the growing TikTokification of social media involves bombarding users with an opaque firehose of algorithmically-sourced, bite-sized clips engineered to hook our attention and keep us scrolling. The result has been an ever-worsening crisis of social media addiction and our entrapment in the distortive virtual world it presents us with — an immersive unreality we like to call “The Simulation.”
But today’s bleak and exploitative information environment is not destiny. For example, here are three concrete ways we as individuals might begin renegotiating our relationship with social media:
Cultivate Algorithmic Skepticism: Learn how “the feed” hooks and manipulates us through endless novelty, ragebait, and cheap emotional triggers. Recognize AI-generated sludge and parasocial propaganda for what they are.
Adopt New Social Norms: Approach social media like an addictive substance—limit your intake or cut it out entirely if needed. Experiment with digital adaptations of “Dry January” and channel more of your energy into real-life gatherings, group chats, newsletters, podcasts, and longform forums.
Shift Away from Exploitative Spaces: Spend less time on digital platforms engineered to maximize time spent scrolling. Online and offline, seek out or build communities that prioritize authenticity, real conversations, and sustainable engagement.
Of course, personal discipline will only get us so far. If we’re going to step off the hamster wheel and reclaim our attention from the clutches of the Simulation, we also need a new generation of platforms designed to uphold human agency rather than exploit it.
Below, a few promising efforts point toward the possible emergence of a post-Simulation internet.
1. Alexis Ohanian Eyes Digg 2.0 and a “TikTok: Freedom Edition”
Earlier this month, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian announced that he had teamed up with Digg co-founder Kevin Rose to buy back the social news aggregation platform that Rose launched in 2004. Once seen as a top Reddit competitor, Digg lost momentum and was eventually stripped and sold for parts in 2012. Rose, who had been intensively researching how AI might ease moderator workloads on Reddit, pitched the idea of acquiring Digg to Ohanian. They plan to relaunch it with a focus on “humanity and connection.”
Of course, Digg isn’t Ohanian’s only effort to renew and revitalize the social internet. Though Reddit remains a bright spot in the otherwise quite dark information landscape, Ohanian has also joined billionaire Frank McCourt’s bid to acquire and overhaul TikTok’s U.S.-facing service under the latter’s “Project Liberty” effort. McCourt envisions a decentralized online ecosystem that gives users greater control over their data and experiences — an effort WIRED describes as “part of a broader mission to move millions of people to healthier online platforms.” Ohanian calls it “TikTok: Freedom Edition.” While TikTok’s U.S. future is uncertain (if anything, reports suggest that Oracle is currently the leading contender to operate the platform in America), the project certainly sounds promising to us.
2. Renée DiResta and Luke Hogg Champion “Middleware”
In a recently published report, researchers Renée DiResta and Luke Hogg outline the potential for a new intermediary layer of software they call “middleware” to fundamentally improve social media. They highlight the rise of federated networks like Bluesky and Mastodon — social media platforms that operate under a “fediverse” model, allowing different servers to connect and communicate with one another. This is a sharp departure from conventional “walled garden” platforms that lock users into a single ecosystem. By building on these open structures, DiResta and Hogg envision third-party services that can mediate between the user and the underlying platforms.
The key innovation lies in giving Fediverse users more control over content moderation and curation — two areas that spark frequent controversy, especially around political debates and harmful content. Middleware could offer customizable feeds and moderation options, allowing people to choose from competing algorithms that align with their preferences. This flexibility aims to reduce the centralized power of platform owners while preventing the chaos and toxicity of a completely unfiltered internet. According to DiResta and Hogg, this “user-centric, democratic online sphere” would expand consumer choice, promote transparency in content recommendation, and drive greater accountability among social platforms. As the Fediverse continues to grow, we’re hopeful we’ll start to see more options like this in the social media marketplace.
3. Buzzfeed Declares War on “SNARF”
In many ways echoing our critique of the Simulation, Buzzfeed founder and chief executive Jonah Peretti recently wrote a widely-discussed “Anti-SNARF Manifesto” in which he argued that engagement-centric algorithmic platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook have fostered the emergence of an addictive, low-quality content ecosystem. This ecosystem rewards the creation and distribution of a specific kind of content that Peretti he labels “SNARF” (an acronym for “Stakes, Novelty, Anger, Retention, Fear”), which he argues undermines human agency, creativity, and authentic expression. In his words, “we need to inject some truth, joy, creativity, and positive entertainment into the social web so people have better alternatives in the sea of SNARF.”
While we agree profusely with his critique of today’s platforms, Peretti’s proposed path forward is a bit light on specifics. Among other things, he indicated that Buzzfeed is currently building its own social media platform — one that “will use AI to give users agency instead of stealing their agency” — in an attempt to deliver us salvation from SNARF. It’s an intriguing pivot from a company that once excelled at gamifying virality, and we’re watching closely to see if Peretti can deliver on his ambition.
While these new ideas and developments are just a handful of the concepts emerging right now, they start to paint an exciting picture of a possible post-Simulation future. In this world, social media platforms are increasingly built around the principles of decentralization, user autonomy, and agency-augmenting use of AI, giving users greater control over their data and their experience on-platform.
While there’s no guarantee these visions will pan out, their emergence hints that a healthier, more humane internet may be closer than we think. And we can’t wait.