Why private micro-networks could be the future of how we connect

More broadly, social networks have messed with our privacy settings in more ways than one. Everything is public now, partly due to outrage culture and “social highlight reels,” but as a result, there will be a big pendulum swing back to private networks. Facebook is a lot like Walmart in the sense that it's just utility oriented, and it doesn't rea... See more

But it’s still possible that future apps like Bedford become the way we segment our relationships in the future. Facebook might morph into a general catch-all for people we know or follow, but our most meaningful interactions might occur in a virtual space where the audience knows us outside the screen, says Bayer.

A new business type here is the paid community: a direct subscription to join in. Today, most paid communities live on the outskirts of existing social platforms. But as they become normalized, paid communities are becoming a viable business model for smaller-scale social networks aiming to be both profitable and socially sustainable.