What’s next for social media from someone who’s Extremely Online

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Hello, and welcome back to Equity, the podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.

This is our Wednesday show where we sit down with a guest, think about their work and unpack the rest. This week, we had Washington Post columnist Taylor Lorenz on to chat about her upcoming book, Extremely Online, the history of online platforms, and the rise of creators.

We’ve covered the creator economy a few times on the podcast over the years, but this addition to our historical coverage is more than worth inclusion. Here’s what we got into:

• All the cool kids are pre-ordering Lorenz’s book, which you can find here.
• Why online work has always been treated like a sideshow: While culture is often created — or born — online, there’s a disconnect between historical centers of authority and influence, and where it’s bubbling up today.
• The rise and fall of Vine: Vine’s massive rise and later implosion is a technology story, a startup story, and the saga of how a platform’s userbase and its leadership can often be on different pages. In a sense Vine was a warning of what we’d see later on when it came to platforms winding up at odds with the very folks driving attention their way.
• New formats, new platforms: It’s worth understanding the progression of online influence shifting from text (blogs) to pictures (social media) to video (TikTok, et al). When new formats have come to the fore, they often bring new platforms along with them, or vice versa. Alex wanted to know what might be next!

And we wrapped with quick notes about AI and Twitter, er X, whatever it’s called. As always, we’re back on Friday with your news rundown. Talk soon!