The Last Days of Social Media

In this essay for Noēma, James O’Sullivan reflects on how early social media brought people on the internet together—through curiosity, connection, genuine engagement, and authentic reciprocal relationships. That period is long gone, replaced by influencers and algorithms, and now AI slop. But O’Sullivan argues that the death of social media can lead to a better web—smaller and slower platforms, private spaces with real people. “[A]s social media collapses on itself, the future points to a quieter, more fractured, more human web,” he writes, “something that no longer promises to be everything, everywhere, for everyone.”

Intentional, opt-in micro‑communities are rising in their place — like Patreon collectives and Substack newsletters — where creators chase depth over scale, retention over virality. A writer with 10,000 devoted subscribers can potentially earn more and burn out less than one with a million passive followers on Instagram. 

But the old practices are still evident: Substack is full of personal brands announcing their journeys, Discord servers host influencers disguised as community leaders and Patreon bios promise exclusive access that is often just recycled content. Still, something has shifted. These are not mass arenas; they are clubs — opt-in spaces with boundaries, where people remember who you are. And they are often paywalled, or at least heavily moderated, which at the very least keeps the bots out. What’s being sold is less a product than a sense of proximity, and while the economics may be similar, the affective atmosphere is different, smaller, slower, more reciprocal. In these spaces, creators don’t chase virality; they cultivate trust.