The Resurrection

The dawn of a new era in digital communication

Digital communication is undergoing a transformation, and at its heart lies the resurgence of real communities as the focal point of connection.

Digital communities, however, are not a new concept. From Facebook Groups to subreddits on Reddit, X, WhatsApp communities—even simple text threads—people have always found ways to congregate online.

Still, there’s a gap in this area of social. Even though people use various apps to stay connected, it often feels like there’s still a need to streamline communication. We need a digital experience specifically crafted for real communities: churches, nonprofits, sports teams, schools, and clubs—primarily local groups.

This leads many real communities to either build their own apps or adapt existing platforms like Facebook Groups and WhatsApp—tools that weren’t designed with their unique needs in mind—to try to keep their people engaged and informed. While these platforms offer basic communication features, they often fall short in providing the functionality, cohesion, and focus that real communities need to truly flourish. Why should every community have to rely on patchwork solutions or go to the lengths of creating their own app just to stay connected? Why aren’t their needs being fully met by the tech tools available today?

Here’s my theory...

Most real communities operate at the local level. Meanwhile, the global focus of social media platforms is on keeping us hooked on the never-ending doom-scroll rather than connecting us to one another. These platforms don’t care about local community or real human connection; they care about attention and engagement from a global audience—because, say it with me, “That’s where the money’s at.” This makes it much harder for real, local communities to have a digital home where they can stay connected with the people they’re doing life with.

Millennials were the early adopters of social networking. From MSN Messenger to Myspace and the early days of Facebook, staying connected with our peer groups was easy when we weren’t physically with them. I remember rushing home from school to log into MSN Messenger so I could chat with my friends (mostly girls) right away. Social networking was about staying connected with people you were doing life with, even when you weren’t with them. We didn’t care as much about kids at other schools or in other cities. We cared about staying even more connected to those we rubbed shoulders with every day. That was the magic. It was the birth of the online social network.

Soon after I graduated, Facebook started to go global, and there was excitement about it. They really sold the idea of staying connected to loved ones—even those across the world. You could also add tons of new “friends,” which created this elevated social status. I remember seeing some people with over 2,000 Facebook friends and feeling jealous, thinking they were so popular.

This was when digital communication began to shift—away from focusing on who you should stay connected with and toward how many people you could connect with. Effective communication with too many people becomes impossible after a certain point; eventually, the people and life events that actually matter to you get lost in the noise.

I came across a theory called the "150 rule," also known as Dunbar's Number. It’s a theoretical cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships—relationships in which an individual knows who each person is and how they relate to every other person in the group. The rule is named after British anthropologist Robin Dunbar, who proposed that human beings can realistically maintain about 150 real relationships.

Dunbar’s research suggests that the size of our brains, particularly the neocortex, limits the number of social connections we can manage. The number 150 isn’t a strict limit but rather an average; some people may manage more or fewer relationships, but social cohesion becomes challenging beyond this threshold.

This concept has implications for everything from organizational theory to social media, as it offers insight into how people form communities and maintain connections.

Globally focused platforms like Facebook, Reddit, and X inevitably become overbearing and oversaturated—with too many people and far too much noise. These platforms cannot meet our core human desires: to be seen, to be heard, to belong. When you have thousands of Facebook friends or members in a digital “community,” it’s easy to feel like just another drop in the ocean of voices.

It’s simply a smaller version of your main feed, which is an entertainment feed, not a conversational exchange designed to keep us connected. Entertainment feeds emphasize creation and consumption—not connection and contribution.

Around 2018, there was an even bigger shift. Instagram began changing its algorithm in ways that killed the sense of community it once proudly promoted. Now, platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook aren’t about keeping you connected to those you care about. They’re about getting you addicted to never-ending “suggested posts” so they can bombard you with ads, profiting off your need for constant notifications and dopamine hits.

That was the final nail in the coffin for social networking. That’s when social networking died and social media rose in its place.

On social media, content is king—if you’re not creating content, you’re a spectator. These platforms keep us passive and entertained, but they rarely help us connect or grow—the original vision of social networking.

At the end of the day, I believe we’re built for human connection, contribution, and community. We want to belong. We want to know that our voice matters.

So, why do real communities need a platform that allows them to easily congregate, communicate, and organize?

Because social networking is dead.

And it’s time to resurrect it.

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About the painting in the banner:
Painted in 1881 by Peder Severin Krøyer, this scene of men gathered in an Italian osteria captures the essence of everyday community. The open door and sunlight speak to a world that welcomes us back to a slower, more human pace.

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