The Shift from Doomscrolling to Purposeful Connection
As mainstream social media platforms face growing user dissatisfaction, a new generation of niche social platforms is challenging legacy networks by prioritizing community engagement over endless content consumption. This movement represents a fundamental shift in how users interact online, moving away from the performative nature of established platforms toward more meaningful digital experiences.
Zehra Naqvi, founder of the recently launched fandom platform Lore, encapsulates this transformation. “The platforms that won were the ones that kept people scrolling the longest, not the ones that made them feel the most connected,” Naqvi told TechCrunch. “Now there is an abundance of content but a scarcity of joy.” Her sentiment echoes across the industry as users increasingly seek alternatives to the doomscrolling culture that has dominated social media.
Interest-First Networks Gain Momentum
The emerging trend focuses on what industry experts call “interest-first” networks. Natalie Dillon, consumer investor at venture firm Maveron, observes that “at its core, consumer behavior is pushing a shift from performance to participation. For the next generation, community isn’t a feature layered on top of a product. It is the product.”
This philosophy manifests in platforms like Beli for restaurant recommendations, Fizz for college connections, Co-Star for astrology enthusiasts, and Partiful for event planning. Unlike traditional social networks that prioritize broad reach, these platforms thrive on specificity and shared interests. As Naqvi explains, “Niche spaces give people permission to be specific and to show up as their whole selves without being lost in the algorithm.”
Community-Centric Design Principles
The design approach of these new platforms fundamentally differs from their predecessors. Alphonzo Terrell’s social network Spill exemplifies this shift, having become a refuge for Black X users seeking escape from rising extremism. “The next era of social media isn’t about the biggest follower counts,” Terrell told TechCrunch. “It’s about depth; helping people find their people.”
Spill’s redesign focuses on matching users with communities rather than simply feeding them content. The platform incorporates community staples like Spades card games and partners with streaming services for co-viewing events called “Tea Parties.” This approach creates shared experiences rather than passive consumption, addressing what security experts might recognize as the need for controlled, secure environments in digital spaces.
Technical Innovation Enables Custom Experiences
Blacksky, founded by Rudy Fraser, demonstrates how technical architecture can support safer community experiences. Built on the same protocol as Bluesky, Blacksky targets minorities and marginalized individuals with algorithms that filter out racial harassment. Unlike traditional platforms where blocking individual users provides limited protection, Blacksky allows complete timeline customization.
“Sometimes you need a global stage. Sometimes you just want a cozy corner with close internet friends where you can control who sees what,” Fraser explained. The platform’s open-source foundation gives users data ownership and control over content access, representing a significant departure from the centralized models of legacy platforms.
AI-Powered Personalization
Artificial intelligence plays a crucial role in enabling these specialized experiences. Austin Clements of Slauson & Co. notes that founders are using AI to build apps that understand nuance so well they create truly tailored experiences. “The newer apps are natively built for the niche itself, enabling them to create the tools and features most relevant to that niche,” he said.
Naqvi’s Lore incorporates AI tools that function as intelligent search engines for fandom content, linking fan theories, cultural context, and easter eggs while providing personalized graphs and monthly obsession reports. As one early tester described it: “It’s like Wikipedia — but if Wikipedia knew exactly what I was thinking.” This level of personalization reflects how advanced simulation technologies are transforming user experiences across digital platforms.
The Creator-Led Revolution
Emily Herrera, a consumer investor formerly with Slow Ventures, emphasizes that creators are now driving this new social media ecosystem. “Creators are moving away from participating in the ‘broadcast’ ecosystem to instead building environments in which they operate as owners,” she said, citing newsletters as an example of this ownership trend.
This shift represents a fundamental rethinking of the creator-platform relationship. Rather than building audiences on platforms they don’t control, creators are establishing their own community spaces where they set the rules and maintain direct relationships with their communities.
Gaming and Interactive Communities
The trend extends into gaming through what Dani Tran of BITKRAFT Ventures calls “niche passion communities.” She cites gaming studio Superbloom, which targets underrepresented audiences, as an example of this movement. “Looking ahead, the most vibrant social communities will be those built around interactive experiences,” Tran predicted.
This interactive focus aligns with what Maveron’s Dillon describes as the winning formula: “The winners will be the platforms that combine intimacy, utility, and creativity in one ecosystem. They won’t look like traditional social networks; they’ll feel like multiplayer environments where people can build, buy, and belong all at once.”
Data Ownership and Community Governance
The architectural choices of these new platforms reflect growing user concerns about data control and content moderation. Fraser highlights how Blacksky enables community governance: “People also vote on decisions together, such as what the community guidelines should be and if non-Black users should be allowed to post in the community.”
This participatory approach to platform governance represents a significant departure from the top-down moderation of traditional social networks. It addresses what Claire Wardle, associate professor at Cornell University, identifies as user concerns about “content moderation, hyper-political spaces, and the permanence of social media posts.” These concerns mirror broader industry conversations about content ownership and artificial intelligence across technology sectors.
The Future of Social Connection
As Naqvi succinctly puts it, people “want tools that help them remember why being online was fun in the first place.” This sentiment captures the essence of the movement away from broadcast-style social media toward participatory communities.
The success of these niche platforms suggests that the era of one-size-fits-all social networks may be ending. Instead, the future appears to belong to specialized communities that prioritize depth over breadth, connection over consumption, and ownership over algorithmic control. As users increasingly seek meaningful digital interactions, these community-focused platforms offer a promising alternative to the doomscrolling culture that has defined social media’s recent past.
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