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For years, developers and technologists have lamented social media's corrosive impact on mental health and society—yet alternatives remain scarce. Herman Martin, founder of minimalist blogging platform Bear, crystallizes this frustration in a manifesto for "slow social media," arguing that platforms like Instagram and TikTok have abandoned their original purpose of fostering connection in favor of algorithmic addiction. His critique isn't just philosophical; it's a technical blueprint for humane design.

"Current social media is bastardised, and not social at all. Instead of improving relationships, they're advertisement-funded content mills designed to keep you engaged, lonely, and unhappy," Martin writes. He observes that once TikTok perfected short-form video as "digital crack," competitors like Meta relentlessly optimized feeds for infinite scroll, transforming platforms into engines of disconnection.

The core failure? Incentives. When platforms profit from attention extraction, Martin argues, users become products sold to advertisers, influencers, and politicians. The result is a landscape where "society and politics are on the rocks all so a fitness influencer can sell you their 'Abs in 30 days' training program"—a quintessential symptom of late-stage platform capitalism.

Engineering Anti-Fragile Connection

Martin's proposal rejects Silicon Valley's growth-at-all-costs playbook through deliberate constraints:

  1. Symmetric Connections, Not Followers: Replace one-way follows with mutual friendships, capped at ~300 (Dunbar's number). This eliminates influencer culture and forces intentionality—users must unfriend to add new connections.
  2. Chronological Feeds with Pagination: Infinite scroll is banned. A finite, time-ordered feed creates natural stopping points, reducing compulsive use.
  3. Posting Limits: Users capped at ~5 posts/day encourage thoughtful sharing over attention-grabbing spam.
  4. No Engagement Algorithms or Analytics: Remove metrics that optimize for virality, focusing purely on communication.
# Technical Pillars of Slow Social Media
- Architecture: Decentralized or small-scale hosting
- UI/UX: Paginated feeds, no notifications
- Business Model: Donations (no ads or data monetization)

The Viability Challenge

Martin acknowledges the hurdles: Can such a platform survive without venture capital? While niche communities might sustain it via donations, mainstream adoption seems unlikely against free, dopamine-driven rivals. Yet the vision resonates with developers fatigued by toxic platforms—a call to build tools that serve humans, not shareholders.

As Martin concludes: "I'd love to stay connected without having my attention sold to the highest bidder." For engineers, this isn't just social criticism—it's a specification waiting to be coded.

Source: Herman Martin