Eli Pariser

@eli.bsky.social

@newpublic.org cofounder / Filter Bubble author / dad, husband, human

As Casey says, users “place a premium on trust” and will leave if they think these apps are full of synthetic content. So where will they go? If recent patterns hold, users will seek out smaller, more private digital space. See our recent research here: newpublic.org/afterthefeed

"Emerging Trust Economy" label at top left. Large text reads "People are already choosing trust over reach." Below is a screenshot of an article headline that reads "The group chats that changed America” Right side reads: "As the open internet fills with synthetic engagement, people are migrating their real social lives to smaller, more private spaces. Group chats, Discord servers, WhatsApp groups, private channels. Maggie Appleton popularized the term 'cozy web' to refer to these spaces — where people know who they're talking to and where norms protect them. Yancey Strickler describes the same migration as a flight from the 'dark forest' of the internet: people retreat to quiet places when the open web becomes hostile. This is happening at every scale, from neighborhood WhatsApp groups to elite group chats where political and business decisions get made."
Casey Newton@caseynewton.bsky.social · 2d ago

Why are Snap, LinkedIn, and Substack turning away from slop while Meta and TikTok embrace it? It comes down to what the platforms promise their user bases www.platformer.news/slop-restric...

This summer, we appear to be moving into slop’s third era. The first was characterized by near-universal disdain for laughable writing and six-fingered humans; the second by the surprising popularity of slop shows like “Fruit Love Island.” In the third era of slop, platforms are rethinking their approaches to AI-generated content based on what their user bases need from them — and vice-versa. Platforms that place a premium on trust are realizing just how quickly slop can erode it. And platforms that don’t are ready to give us as much slop as we can handle.

Public service media institutions need to embrace the open social web if they want to reach a digitally native audience — leaning further into U.S.-centric Big Tech platforms is not the answer. Excited to share updates on my work with @newpublic.org’s Public Space Incubator!

Re-building Public Conversation - Public Media Alliance

How public broadcasters are creating meaningful and safe public discourse, what it means for other public institutions.

publicmediaalliance.org

Younger audiences are abandoning public media sites for social media news updates, but at the same time, social platforms are abandoning people through misinformation and toxicity. @cjtait.bsky.social sees an opportunity for public media to once again host thoughtful, healthy conversation.

“It felt like a double jeopardy for the democracy that public broadcasting aims to hold up: the deterioration of public discourse on our digital services and the loss of our future audiences to other platforms.”

“We don't have an algorithm. We have people taking care of the space, helping things stay productive and constructive.” @hayswitt.bsky.social — Portland local & part of the team building Roundabout, our local community app — talks healthy, hyperlocal online spaces with @citycastportland.bsky.social

City Gets Sued for $717K Over a Single Tree, Why Nextdoor is the Worst, and Theories on All Those Loud Booms - City Cast Portland

We’re talking about how a single tree cost the city over $700,000 and a new local alternative to Nextdoor promising less snark and more community....

portland.citycast.fm

In less than a year, folks using our local community app Roundabout have shared over 2,000 local events across just a few pilot communities! 📅🎉 Unlike most social media apps, Roundabout encourages neighbors to build connection OFFLINE, in the real world. Here’s to another 2,000 gatherings!

Roundabout North Chatt interface showing calendar view. Left sidebar displays navigation menu. Main content shows July 2026 week view (July 20-26) with July 25 highlighted in blue. Four events listed: Heatwave Half Marathon - Chattanooga on SAT 25 at 7am at Tennessee River Park Pavilion 2; Monthly Volunteer Event: Rain Garden Workshop at 8:30am at Red Bank High School; Autism Field Day on July 25 at 9am at Washington Hills Community Center; Chattanooga River Market (weekly outdoor market) at 10am at Tennessee Aquarium Plaza.

Built with public media partners around the world, the Public Space Incubator toolkit brings journalists and readers together, reimagining news comment sections as nuanced conversation. New_ Public’s Expert-in-Residence and former CBC/Radio-Canada CEO @cjtait.bsky.social shares updates from PSI:

⁉️⏩💬 How public broadcasters are changing online conversation

Public Spaces Incubator’s new toolkit is turning comment sections into dialogues

newpublic.substack.com

The Community·Computer Interaction Lab published a toolkit of 23 design patterns naming the small, often invisible ways people care for one another in online communities, “inspired by cultural practices … that offer a way of seeing what usually stays in the background.” c-cilab.com/care-pattern...

Light gray background with text "A TOOLKIT FROM THE C-CI LAB" at top. Large bold black heading reads "Patterns of Everyday Care" followed by description "A toolkit to help notice and design for the subtle, everyday ways people care for one another in online communities." Three interactive buttons displayed: black rounded button labeled "How to read a pattern →", white button labeled "Browse the collection", and gray text link "Get the materials".

Unlike the planning of physical spaces, the guidelines and standards for digital public spaces are pretty undefined, says Managing Director at New_ Public @angelquicksey.bsky.social. Which means that communities have far more latitude to build what they truly want and need.

There is a growing debate about the future of the internet: will it be fully compromised by bots? Can humans and AI-powered agents coexist online? This isn't exactly hypothetical: recent data from @pangram.com found 41% of longer posts on LinkedIn in recent months were flagged as fully AI content.

A heatmap table from Pangram titled "AI is prevalent across social media, most of all in longform," showing the share of items flagged as fully AI-generated across five platforms for shortform (50–250 words) and longform (250+ words) content, Apr–Jun 2026. LinkedIn has the highest AI rates (30% shortform, 41% longform), followed by Medium (28%, 31%). X/Twitter shows a large gap between shortform and longform (9% vs. 29%), while Reddit is lowest overall (3%, 13%). Substack is the only platform where shortform exceeds longform (12% vs. 10%).

About 30 articles and counting on @eli.bsky.social & @angelquicksey.bsky.social’s crowd-sourced reading list on how AI is changing the way we interact with information & each other. If something you’ve read, listened to, or engaged with has helped you decipher this topic — it belongs on this list!

AI and the Info Environment Reading List

README 👋 Hi there! This “reading list” was started by Angelica Quicksey and Eli Pariser from New_ Public. Angelica and Eli co-authored this After The Feed report on AI and social technology and are ...

docs.google.com

🌌 We’re excited to show you another great addition to the "growing constellation of interconnected apps" on the open web: Bonfire🔥 Bonfire helps build spaces for communities, outside of the Big Tech social platforms, that are shaped by the people who will use them, for exactly what they want.

“We're trying to make publishing more fun and more social!” 🎉🥬 Thank you, @schlage.town! One of our Honorable Mentions at the Open Social Awards, @leaflet.pub embodies the spirit of the open social web in the publishing space by allowing independent writers to really own and control their writing.

RESEARCH: Access to local news plays an important role in reducing loneliness. Whether it’s an community spotlight or an obituary, local news helps locals know what’s happening (and therefore, where to gather) and encourages a sense of community identity. From @washingtonmonthly.bsky.social

How Local News Reduces Loneliness

Research suggests that whether it’s an obituary, a puff piece, or news of a community event, local news makes us feel less alone.

washingtonmonthly.com