A new wave of social media apps provide hope in a doomscrolling world

Zehra Naqvi recalls the magical days of the early social internet.  

She grew up in the One  Direction and Marvel fandoms in the early 2010s. This was back when people posted photos of lattes using the Valencia filter on Instagram, and Twitter was still Twitter, a place where people came together to exchange jokes and cultural analysis.  

But now Instagram is full of influencers, and Twitter is X, a digital town hall with a  fierce political divide. 

“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.”