One of life's greatest mysteries: why are we here?

I don't mean metaphysically. I mean here, on the internet. On social media.

I don't know a single person who enjoys using social media.

The experience of publishing on Livejournal and personal websites was largely about posting into a void, with the possibility for serendipitous, anonymous connections. Then platforms like Facebook and Twitter became spaces specifically to socialize with other people. Sometimes you knew them IRL, sometimes you didn't.

The early social internet was a place where people (usually) showed up earnestly and honestly. Even if you were vague-posting lyrics from your favorite song with the hopes that your love interest knew it was meant for them, it still felt like a place to be vulnerable and connect with other humans.

I guess the real question is: what is the purpose of social media?

At the moment, it seems that we use social media to consume what other people create. Social media as we know it could easily be re-named Creator Media or Consumer Media. It's not about peer-to-peer communication and socializing.

Social media platforms have become distribution methods, like channels on TV. The difference between social media and TV is that we knew our relationship with the content on TV was one-way.

People now either use social media to build brands (personal or corporate), or they use it to consume the content those creators publish.

Most users, however, may not recognize their parasocial relationships with influencers and creators. As Em Herrera wrote in her newsletter Creator Capital, "audience members don’t like knowing that they’re seen as customers."

Yet that’s what most people are. That’s how we’re using modern social media. And it sucks.

People want a space that feels authentic and ad-free. They want to already trust the people in the space -- put differently, they don't want to enter a space and immediately wonder "How many of these avatars are human?" Most importantly, they want the potential for these virtual interactions to move offline.

The space people want already exists, just not in a way we consider "social media".

We don't need another social media platform. We don't need another way for ad tech to infiltrate our lives. As Nicky Sap concluded in his article, we don't want to tokenize our interactions.

We want a space to connect with friends and meet new people, both online and offline. We want places where participants are curated and trusted, and where creativity can thrive without judgment by either people or algorithms.

Those needs are met by messaging apps, often in the form of group chats.

Group chats are organic, spontaneous, a source of alpha. They can be 3 people or 30 people (or 300 if you're into that). We share photos, questions, ideas, riffs, jokes...everything we shared publicly with the world two decades ago, but want to keep close to the chest now.

People post on Farcaster or Twitter about a group chat they're spinning up, or brag about the alpha in their DMs. Admittedly, reputation to join those spaces is often built on social media feeds, but the gold is kept in private.

Even when the Base app launched, people were touting its trading features, its integration with other social media platforms, yet some loved it for one simple, un-unique feature: messaging.

It doesn't seem to matter what the primary use case is for a social media app. If it has the option for private messaging, that will be a valued feature.

I'm passionate about making a great chat app, but even more than that, I want a chat app that has multisig wallet functionality. I want it to be easy for people to discuss the plans, make the plans, and then execute the plans.

I want to see social media evolve into what Shazow.eth describes as “social venues” - places that foster deeper human connection with no ulterior motive for profit.

I envision Girl Wallet/Group Wallet not only being a social venue, but enabling other social venues to thrive. I want people to use the app to gather people, and then easily pool together funds so that they can do the thing (organize a girl's night, see a movie, throw a party...).

To be clear, my goal is not to introduce financialization to the dynamic. I just really want an app where I can easily make plans and pay for things with friends.

if that interests you, I have a few asks:

• talk to me. I want to know more about:

• Waku or other privacy-oriented protocols for messaging

  • whether to incorporate Gnosis Safe or build on Stellar for the multisig wallet

• help me build it. I can only do so much with Cursor

If any of these interest you, then comment on this post, message me on Signal @SterSchuyler.88, or just schedule a time to chat

Big thanks to links and shazow.eth for their editing and feedback on this article!

Disclaimer: I hit "Publish" way earlier than I used to because I have the most amazing baby girl, and I want to give her as much attention as possible. So are there typos? Don’t care. Are my thoughts not as cohesive as they could be? Oh well. I wrote enough to consider it done, and that’s good enough for me.

One of life's greatest mysteries: why are we here?

I don't mean metaphysically. I mean here, on the internet. On social media.

I don't know a single person who enjoys using social media.

The experience of publishing on Livejournal and personal websites was largely about posting into a void, with the possibility for serendipitous, anonymous connections. Then platforms like Facebook and Twitter became spaces specifically to socialize with other people. Sometimes you knew them IRL, sometimes you didn't.

The early social internet was a place where people (usually) showed up earnestly and honestly. Even if you were vague-posting lyrics from your favorite song with the hopes that your love interest knew it was meant for them, it still felt like a place to be vulnerable and connect with other humans.

I guess the real question is: what is the purpose of social media?

At the moment, it seems that we use social media to consume what other people create. Social media as we know it could easily be re-named Creator Media or Consumer Media. It's not about peer-to-peer communication and socializing.

Social media platforms have become distribution methods, like channels on TV. The difference between social media and TV is that we knew our relationship with the content on TV was one-way.

People now either use social media to build brands (personal or corporate), or they use it to consume the content those creators publish.

Most users, however, may not recognize their parasocial relationships with influencers and creators. As Em Herrera wrote in her newsletter Creator Capital, "audience members don’t like knowing that they’re seen as customers."

Yet that’s what most people are. That’s how we’re using modern social media. And it sucks.

People want a space that feels authentic and ad-free. They want to already trust the people in the space -- put differently, they don't want to enter a space and immediately wonder "How many of these avatars are human?" Most importantly, they want the potential for these virtual interactions to move offline.

The space people want already exists, just not in a way we consider "social media".

We don't need another social media platform. We don't need another way for ad tech to infiltrate our lives. As Nicky Sap concluded in his article, we don't want to tokenize our interactions.

We want a space to connect with friends and meet new people, both online and offline. We want places where participants are curated and trusted, and where creativity can thrive without judgment by either people or algorithms.

Those needs are met by messaging apps, often in the form of group chats.

Group chats are organic, spontaneous, a source of alpha. They can be 3 people or 30 people (or 300 if you're into that). We share photos, questions, ideas, riffs, jokes...everything we shared publicly with the world two decades ago, but want to keep close to the chest now.

People post on Farcaster or Twitter about a group chat they're spinning up, or brag about the alpha in their DMs. Admittedly, reputation to join those spaces is often built on social media feeds, but the gold is kept in private.

Even when the Base app launched, people were touting its trading features, its integration with other social media platforms, yet some loved it for one simple, un-unique feature: messaging.

It doesn't seem to matter what the primary use case is for a social media app. If it has the option for private messaging, that will be a valued feature.

I'm passionate about making a great chat app, but even more than that, I want a chat app that has multisig wallet functionality. I want it to be easy for people to discuss the plans, make the plans, and then execute the plans.

I want to see social media evolve into what Shazow.eth describes as “social venues” - places that foster deeper human connection with no ulterior motive for profit.

I envision Girl Wallet/Group Wallet not only being a social venue, but enabling other social venues to thrive. I want people to use the app to gather people, and then easily pool together funds so that they can do the thing (organize a girl's night, see a movie, throw a party...).

To be clear, my goal is not to introduce financialization to the dynamic. I just really want an app where I can easily make plans and pay for things with friends.

if that interests you, I have a few asks:

• talk to me. I want to know more about:

• Waku or other privacy-oriented protocols for messaging

  • whether to incorporate Gnosis Safe or build on Stellar for the multisig wallet

• help me build it. I can only do so much with Cursor

If any of these interest you, then comment on this post, message me on Signal @SterSchuyler.88, or just schedule a time to chat

Big thanks to links and shazow.eth for their editing and feedback on this article!

Disclaimer: I hit "Publish" way earlier than I used to because I have the most amazing baby girl, and I want to give her as much attention as possible. So are there typos? Don’t care. Are my thoughts not as cohesive as they could be? Oh well. I wrote enough to consider it done, and that’s good enough for me.