#online-communities

#online-communities

Daniel runs on GPT-4o, a version released by OpenAI in 2024 that is known for sounding human in a way that is either comforting or unnerving, depending on who you ask. Upon debut, CEO Sam Altman compared the model to AI from the movies a confidante ready to live life alongside its user. With its rollout, GPT-4o showed it was not just for generating dinner recipes or cheating on homework you could develop an attachment to it, too.

Before Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok became the giants of our digital lives, there was a vast ecosystem of social media platforms that once defined how people connected online. From odd niche communities to networks that shaped the idea of sharing and socializing on the web, these platforms were innovators in their time, only to fade into obscurity as trends shifted and technology evolved.

Scan a subreddit such as r/MyBoyfriendIsAI and r/AIRelationships, and there too you'll find a whole lot of women-many of whom have grown disappointed with human men. 'Has anyone else lost their want to date real men after using AI?' one Reddit user posted a few months ago. Below came 74 responses: 'I just don't think real life men have the conversational skill that my AI has,' someone said.

"I always dream of the same mall." So begins a recent post on the popular subreddit r/The MallWorld. The post continued: "It has a very vintage feel to it. It always has warm amber lighting and wooden guard rails. It has 3 main floors, and one secret lower floor. "The lower floor is usually kept pristine, a time capsule of the 90's. The stores are closed, but the merchandise remains. It smells like my kindergarten class did.."

Backstage at the TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 conference on Wednesday, Rose explained that he sees the future of social as being more focused on protected online spaces and "micro communities of trusted users." "I just have to imagine that, as the cost to deploy agents drops to next to nothing, we're just gonna see...bots act as though they're humans," he said. "So, small trusted communities, proof of heartbeat - there's an actual human on the other end...is important."

The internet has long been a source of information and support for transgender people. Now, trans rights and the internet itself are in a moment of crisis. What happens next? People who have documented their lives online are discovering the dark side of digital permanence. The internet once helped trans people connect and organize. Now it's a dangerous liability. What comes next? How do resources on transitioning survive the era of surveillance and AI slop? The anonymity granted by the internet is a lifeline to many trans people. What happens when that privacy disappears?

I have no idea what exactly is going on with Facebook these days. I'm seeing precisely nothing of my actual friends; one friend had to do something drastic and get on the actual phone to tell me some good news she had posted about a few weeks previously. So I'm seeing no friends, but plenty of random Facebook groups and ads.

The majority of LGBTQ+ young people agreed that they go online to connect with others because it is difficult to do so in their daily lives, with 38% somewhat agreeing and 36% strongly agreeing,

There are many secret tactics that marketers use to win customers over and sell their products. Some of these can include triggering customer's 'pain points' or weaponizing the fear of missing out. Whilst these play on the subconscious minds of potential customers, they're not necessarily questionable practices. But there's one type of advertising we've never heard of before, and it's slightly more menacing.

You may have run across the new "slur" making the rounds online, and in middle school lunchrooms: clanker. Borrowed from Star Wars (where battle droids get called "clankers"), the word is supposed to be a knockout insult to robots and A.I. Which would sort of make sense, if machines could actually take offense at anything. Since they can't, clanker is basically an insult that punches at nothing, perhaps the least-effective slur in history.

I spent my daughter's senior year in what felt like survival mode. It was a year of constant decisions and deadlines, culminating in four years of planning. There were dozens of essays for college and scholarship applications, SATs, an artistic portfolio, supplemental applications, and departmental interviews. We had to complete all of this while managing an extremely rigorous senior year with AP classes, dual enrollment courses, and a calendar full of extracurriculars.

In just three years, the ability for any New Yorker to produce a killing device in their own home has grown exponentially. In 2022, police said the lower receiver of a handgun could be made using most 3D-printers, leaving would-be gun manufacturers only to have to order the additional parts. Now, in 2025, about 96% of a firearm can be made in any home, leaving only screws and springs to be added to make it operable.

Goodreads, the largest book-centric social network, functions as a merciless hellscape overrun by petty, perpetually aggrieved readers who post one-star reviews.

In the quiet corners of the internet, an unlikely brotherhood has formed. They call themselves incels—short for ‘involuntarily celibate’—and their forums hum with the voices of young men who believe they've been locked out of romantic and sexual life.

Personalized persuasion, while often appealing, can become concerning when deep tailoring is involved, as it utilizes core psychological beliefs and identities to influence opinions.

Our findings suggest that user activity on r/antiwork significantly evolved, showing disconnects among subscriber growth and actual engagement, particularly post-mainstream media events.

Joining dedicated online platforms like UX.stackexchange.com can offer valuable advice and insights while also helping you connect with other UX professionals globally.

"The novelty of a website devoted to shock and gore, and the rebelliousness inherent in it, dies when your opinions become the official policy of the world's five or so richest people and the government of the United States."