We live in the ruins of the 1st networks. Facebook, X, Instagram, Telegram, TikTok are the modern equivalent of ancient giant architecture that sank civilisations. They are the 1st networks. They did great things but their time has ended.
They are the proverbial1 Easter Island statues that destroyed Easter Island, built for abundance, resulted in scarcity.
They failed. The failure is visible, tangible and irreversible.
They look tarnished and eroded. The end of their world took a toll on the remains.
As we walk among the ruins, nature reclaims their work. Large swaths will disappear in geological layers of irrelevance.
Future scholars will dig them up.
The second wave of social is forming. Currents of ownership, real connection, shared values, privacy bring tremendous energy to this wave. We're here to ride the wave.
Their failure is not our opportunity. It's our calling.
We need to stand up from the calamities and deluges their fall caused.
Stand UpWe need to stand up, dust ourselves and continue.
Their wondrous two billion2 DAU stands tall just like the ancient architectural artefacts we go visit holding a slushy and our camera app on, almost unexplainable, hard to figure out – why did they ever have to do that?
We then do better.
1 Proverbial reference to the ecological collapse theory of Easter Island.
2 Daily Active Users - a metric of engagement scale.