For more than a decade, social media felt inevitable. Log on, scroll, post, repeat. But lately the vibe has shifted. The platforms that once promised connection now feel like infrastructure for extraction and addiction – harvesting attention, data, creative labour. 

In a sprawling SEED CLUB thread our global community of experts began asking what's next for the platforms we all spend too much time on? The conversation reads like a snapshot of a moment where the internet feels both exhausted and on the brink of reinvention — which began with a provocation from Malena Roche two months ago:

“There’s been tons on the news about Musk and Zuckerberg and the TikTok ban, but I want to talk about people’s desire to find a new ethical home for their online personas. Seems like all major channels are owned by technocrats, but I see an appetite for something else... People want to exist online without unwillingly helping rich immoral men get richer.”

The Technofeudalism Moment

A big theme in the thread is something economists and writers have increasingly called technofeudalism – the idea that digital platforms operate less like open markets and more like medieval estates, where a few powerful players control the infrastructure and everyone else works the land.

Source: New York Magazine

Roche references the concept directly:

“I’m also reading a book that’s somewhat on this topic called Technofeudalism, and it touches upon some interesting topics such as people being monetised for data/content, which I guess, at first, was not perceived as problematic, but as more and more online spaces become toxic and bully central, this thesis becomes more and more infuriating.”

That feeling – of slowly realising you’ve been working someone else’s digital farm – seems to be spreading. Juliana Callia-Long frames the next phase as a potential rebellion against the system:

“I’m also interested in the concept of ‘technofeudalism’ and the necessary counter-movement that may need to emerge. I’m thinking of something around social platform fluidity and disobedience, but I’m still unsure how it will manifest.”