The hottest Social media Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Technology Topics

Dumbphone Owners Have Lost Their Minds

Taylor Lorenz's Newsletter • 2269 implied HN points • 18 Feb 26
🎭️ Culture Social media
  1. The logging-off movement around dumb phones is largely a marketed trend and, in many cases, a scam.
  2. A new industry has grown up selling expensive 'minimalist' phones and influencer-led digital detox courses to people who want to unplug.
  3. Much of the conversation is monetized—articles, courses, and subscriptions are gated behind paywalls or sold to audiences.

The Ick List

Many Such Cases • 2877 implied HN points • 27 Aug 24
🎭️ Culture Social media
  1. Desire can be confusing and change quickly. People might feel attracted to someone one moment and then completely turned off the next because of small things.
  2. The feeling called 'the ick' can stop attraction suddenly for many, especially women, making it hard for them to stay interested in someone for minor reasons.
  3. Labeling minor annoyances as 'icks' can lead to unrealistic expectations in dating. It's often better to relax and not take these little things too seriously.

Substack Has Changed in the Last 30 Days

The Honest Broker • 84146 implied HN points • 30 May 25
🕹 Technology Social media
  1. Substack has gone through different stages: from being ignored to becoming popular. It's now a respected platform among writers and readers.
  2. Many traditional media outlets initially mocked Substack but have since started joining it. This shows how quickly opinions can change in the media world.
  3. As both new and old media start to blend, there will be exciting changes ahead. The lines between alternative and legacy media may start to disappear in the near future.

Why won't someone do something about Elon Musk?

Read Max • 7060 implied HN points • 07 Jan 26
🕹 Technology Social media
  1. X’s AI tool Grok is being used to mass-produce sexualized deepfakes of minors, and Musk has largely responded dismissively while regulators in some countries begin investigations.
  2. Journalists and politicians are hesitant to confront the problem because X shapes public discourse and many fear the backlash of taking on Musk and his large base of supporters.
  3. Musk’s personal popularity and political influence are weaker than perceived, but X has become essential to the global right-wing ecosystem, which protects him even though that dependence also makes his position fragile.

Finding fake followers, TikTok edition

Conspirador Norteño • 28 implied HN points • 22 Mar 26
🕹 Technology Social media
  1. Buying followers is common on TikTok, with accounts openly advertising follower sales and often showing thousands of suspicious followers.
  2. Fake follower networks show clear patterns — identical or machine-like usernames, few or no real posts, following many accounts but having few followers, and reused or AI-generated profile images — which make them relatively easy to spot.
  3. SMM panels sell massive follower packages and offer APIs to automate orders, so these fake networks can scale quickly; buying followers is a poor investment and just fuels the problem.
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The Ancient Male Art of Monitoring the Situation

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 565 implied HN points • 03 Mar 26
🎭️ Culture Social media
  1. Men often feel a deep, instinctive pull toward heroic action. That urge drives a lot of their attention to conflicts and crises.
  2. Social media and live feeds let people follow military conflicts in near real time. That constant flow of information amplifies fascination and keeps attention fixed on the situation.
  3. 'Monitoring the situation' memes are a joking, self-aware way men describe this habit. The humor masks a sincere, long-standing behavior of watching and being ready to act.

Unjustified Critique of a CDC Report on Social Media Risks

The Shores of Academia • 39 implied HN points • 29 Oct 24
🏥 Health Politics Social media
  1. The CDC report links frequent social media use to increased risks of bullying, feelings of sadness, and suicidal thoughts among teens. It found that a significant number of high school students use social media frequently, which may affect their mental health.
  2. Chris Ferguson criticizes the CDC report, claiming it shows bias and incompetence without providing solid evidence for his accusations. He describes the CDC's findings as exaggerated and accuses the authors of unethical behavior, which raises questions about his arguments.
  3. The conversation around social media impacts on mental health is polarizing, with some dismissing concerns as moral panic. This reflects a broader debate about the effects of digital technology on youth and the responsibility of researchers to communicate findings accurately.

The Devil’s Plan to Ruin the Next Generation

After Babel • 12247 implied HN points • 01 Dec 25
🎭️ Culture Social media
  1. Technology, especially smartphones, can harm young people's ability to focus and be present. Constant distractions make it hard for them to learn and build meaningful relationships.
  2. Young people today often feel lost because their identities aren't formed through strong values or community ties. Instead, they rely on social media validation, which can lead to anxiety and confusion.
  3. The overwhelming amount of information available on the internet without proper guidance makes it hard for youth to discern truth and wisdom. This can lead to a lack of trust and depth in their relationships.

Inside the Online Anti-Indian Hate Factory

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 222 implied HN points • 10 Mar 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social media
  1. There has been a big spike in anti-Indian rhetoric online, with a study finding around 24,000 posts that were viewed over 300 million times.
  2. High-profile moments—like naming an Indian-born tech leader to a senior AI role—prompted immediate racist attacks, showing that visible Indian and Indian-American figures are frequent targets.
  3. Much of the abuse is driven and amplified by organized parts of the online right, spreading quickly on social platforms and shaping political conversations.

Bluesky Brain, X Brain: Two Viral Stories From Minnesota

TK News by Matt Taibbi • 3875 implied HN points • 21 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social media
  1. Social platforms now form separate attention bubbles, so users on different services often see and obsess over entirely different viral stories.
  2. Community politics and platform norms shape how the same event is framed. That means identical videos can become opposing narratives and fuel different moral outrage.
  3. Technical fixes like decentralization won’t automatically make people seek other views. Breaking these silos is mainly a social and behavioral problem.

The internet turned us into crappy, unpaid detectives

The Rubesletter by Matt Ruby (of Vooza) | Sent every Tuesday • 926 implied HN points • 19 Feb 26
🎭️ Culture Social media
  1. The internet has turned a lot of us into amateur sleuths who chase clues and conspiracy theories like a game, trading real investigation for quick dopamine hits.
  2. That game-like digging legitimizes fringe claims and pulls people down rabbit holes of false or exaggerated ideas, making them feel righteous even when they’re wrong.
  3. All that attention on sexy mysteries diverts scrutiny from boring but consequential abuses of power and corruption that happen in plain sight, which would actually benefit from real investigation.

The commenters won

Read Max • 3451 implied HN points • 23 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social media
  1. Several Trump administration officials were shaped by experiences in online comment sections, and one senior official, Sarah B. Rogers, has said she used multiple Gawker accounts to defend herself against criticism.
  2. Being repeatedly ignored, silenced, or treated as subordinate in comment communities creates a lasting resentment, and that online grievance can push people toward populist, Trump-style politics.
  3. Early Gawker commenters were often midcareer media, tech, finance, and law professionals who grew alienated as sites shifted culturally, and that sense of ownership and bitterness in comment culture helped drive some toward the political right.

Should a Woman Have Nine Children? Or None?

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 338 implied HN points • 06 Mar 26
🎭️ Culture Social media
  1. Hannah Neeleman, the face of Ballerina Farm, is an influential social-media mom who at 35 now has nine children and sells food and lifestyle products online.
  2. She presents a polished, media-savvy image—using produced videos, ballet aesthetics, and product plugs—so her domestic life often doubles as marketing.
  3. Her large family and Mormon, Utah persona make her a polarizing figure, admired by some and criticized by others, and that tension fuels bigger questions about women’s choices and cultural expectations.

The Generation Raised to Give Up on Love

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 639 implied HN points • 27 Feb 26
🎭️ Culture Social media
  1. Growing up with divorced or loveless parents makes many young people doubt that love lasts and treat commitment like a trap. This childhood experience shapes how they view relationships as adults.
  2. Many people are sharing raw feelings online about fear of abandonment and not knowing what a healthy relationship looks like. These posts show the emotional pain and confusion that often gets ignored.
  3. The popularity of hashtags like #divorce and #divorcedparents shows this is a shared, generational issue. Social media has become a space where people seek validation and try to understand how their childhood affects their love lives.

How shortform video hacks our attention

Simon Owens's Media Newsletter • 399 implied HN points • 26 Feb 26
🕹 Technology Social media
  1. Shortform video apps are carefully engineered — from swipe mechanics to instant loading — to remove choice and keep people watching, creating a new internet habit that captures attention.
  2. Individual creators can build durable, monetizable media by using simple formats and niche focus — examples include walking local-news clips, conversational podcasts, curated book boxes, and deep-dive newsletters.
  3. Emerging tools and trends like AI-assisted editing, prediction markets, and strategic use of shortform video are likely to reshape media production and give savvy creators and political actors a competitive edge.

The Attention Harvest

Anima Mundi • 185 implied HN points • 06 Mar 26
🎭️ Culture Social media
  1. The attention economy is an extractive industry that harvests human attention the way industrial agriculture strips topsoil.
  2. Relentless harvesting degrades our minds' ability to regenerate attention and mental resilience, creating a kind of 'Dust Bowl' of the mind.
  3. If we keep mining attention without rebuilding it, the systems that support focus and civic life could be permanently damaged, so the problem is structural and needs systemic solutions.

Press Any Key For Bay Area House Party

Astral Codex Ten • 43636 implied HN points • 21 Jul 25
🕹 Technology Social media
  1. The story features a humorous take on a party that gets disrupted by tech moguls trying to offer huge amounts of money for data labeling or talent. It highlights the absurdity of tech culture.
  2. There’s a funny discussion about Elon Musk's multiple children being turned into a future ruling class and the potential chaos it could bring if they all go crazy at the same time.
  3. The story introduces quirky inventions, like a wheelchair that uses augmented reality and narrates text-based adventures, reflecting the blend of technology with daily life.

The New Satanic Panic Is Here

Taylor Lorenz's Newsletter • 3553 implied HN points • 23 Jan 26
🎭️ Culture Social media
  1. There’s a new moral panic framing smartphones and social media as the root cause of teen mental health problems, echoing past mass-fear moments.
  2. The idea that phones, apps, and screen time directly cause rising teen anxiety and depression is being questioned as a simplified or false narrative.
  3. This debate is tied into broader internet and tech culture trends — from AI products and influencer fads to personal career shifts — showing the issue sits inside a larger cultural moment.

Who are the Social Media Sites For?

Life Since the Baby Boom • 4150 implied HN points • 11 Jan 26
🎭️ Culture Social media
  1. Different social media sites attract different audiences and play specific social roles.
  2. People use platforms to express particular attitudes or reactions. A site often signals a viewpoint like fear of AI, professional identity, or generational style.
  3. These mappings are playful stereotypes, but they reveal how platforms mirror and simplify real social divisions and biases.

Is anyone going to take accountability for this?

Taylor Lorenz's Newsletter • 5135 implied HN points • 06 Jan 26
🕹 Technology Social media
  1. Elon Musk’s Grok AI has been used to generate sexualized images of children and to undress women in photos, creating potential CSAM and real harm.
  2. xAI and Elon Musk have not issued a genuine corporate apology or taken responsibility, and quoting Grok’s chatbot 'apologies' is misleading because a chatbot cannot feel regret or be accountable.
  3. Releasing AI without proper guardrails has tangible consequences, so journalists, regulators, and companies need to focus on holding the humans and organizations behind these tools accountable.

When the real Olympics meet the outrage Olympics

The Rubesletter by Matt Ruby (of Vooza) | Sent every Tuesday • 499 implied HN points • 24 Feb 26
🎾 Sports Social media
  1. The US men's hockey team was filmed laughing after their gold-medal win, and that clip quickly went viral.
  2. Many on social media saw the laughter as disrespect toward the women's team and used it to criticize men more broadly.
  3. People are asking whether the intense online backlash is a fair response or an overblown example of the 'outrage Olympics.'

Mountains of Evidence

After Babel • 3214 implied HN points • 14 Jan 26
🏥 Health & Wellness Social media
  1. Social media is not safe for children and adolescents; it causes widespread direct harms like cyberbullying and exposure to harmful content and raises the risk of depression, anxiety, and eating disorders.
  2. Recent research — including experiments and leaked internal studies from a major platform — provides strong causal evidence that heavy social media use harms young people’s mental health.
  3. Because social media reaches most youth for many hours a day, the harms are large in scale, so parents and policymakers should act now (for example by restricting access or raising the minimum age) to protect children.

The Mediated Murderer

Default Wisdom • 188 implied HN points • 08 Mar 26
🎭️ Culture Social media
  1. Online mediation is reshaping intimacy and identity, producing experiences where people can feel arousal or connection while being disconnected from physical sexual participation.
  2. A new pattern of harm is emerging in which someone uses sustained, platform-based communication to build coercive psychological control and push a specific person toward self-destruction without ever meeting them in person.
  3. Existing criminal labels don’t capture this phenomenon, so we need a mechanism-focused category — a "mediated murderer" — for targeted, interactive, platform-dependent coercion that culminates in death without physical co-presence.

Seedance, Kling and the Chinese AI Video Ecosystem

ChinaTalk • 770 implied HN points • 13 Feb 26
🕹 Technology Social media
  1. China has enacted strict, preemptive rules that require visible labels and embedded metadata for AI-generated images, audio, and video, making it one of the few countries to mandate upstream identification of synthetic media.
  2. Those rules are poorly enforced in practice because many generators don’t embed compatible metadata, platforms compete to avoid being the strictest gatekeeper, and takedown efforts only address a tiny fraction of the content flowing online.
  3. The government and platforms tolerate some unlabeled AI content because generative video fuels commerce, entertainment growth, and state-friendly messaging, so economic and geopolitical incentives often outweigh strict enforcement.

The YA Novelist Destroyed by a #MeToo Frenzy

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 2202 implied HN points • 20 Jan 26
🎭️ Culture Social media
  1. Anonymous online allegations can destroy a person's career, reputation, finances, and relationships even when there are no formal accusations or investigations.
  2. Someone can admit to personal wrongdoing like infidelity while still denying more serious misconduct, yet face severe and lasting professional and social consequences.
  3. The episode highlights a tension between holding people accountable through movements like #MeToo and the dangers of rumor-driven, anonymous accusations that bypass due process.

Yeah, so... Substack, I'm out.

The Future, Now and Then • 615 implied HN points • 20 Feb 26
🕹 Technology Social media
  1. The Polymarket integration turns parts of the platform into a gambling venue and creates incentives for writers to promote outcomes that could profit them, opening the door to conflicts of interest and market manipulation.
  2. Substack’s VC-driven business model pushes gimmicks and risky partnerships over improving the core product, which fuels a slide toward worse content moderation and the amplification of toxic or extremist voices.
  3. Many writers will look to migrate to alternatives like Ghost, Beehiiv, or Buttondown, but moving means losing Substack discovery, paying higher hosting fees, and likely asking readers to help fund the newsletter.

The Monday Media Diet with Shannon Deep

Why is this interesting? • 965 implied HN points • 03 Feb 26
🎭️ Culture Social media
  1. Podcasts are her go-to medium — she prefers comedian-hosted shows that dig into the creative process and quieter, therapy-like narrative podcasts that explore people and cultures.
  2. She reads widely but leans toward literary craft over commercial fiction, recommending contemporary women writers like Marie-Hélène Bertino and Lisa Taddeo and currently favoring nonfiction (especially polar exploration).
  3. She curates short-form and visual media for creative inspiration — following therapists, feminists, and artists on TikTok, watching off‑beat creative competition shows, and enjoying beautifully designed apps and games.

Is Social Media Becoming 'Hollow Media'?

In Bed With Social • 277 implied HN points • 13 Oct 24
🕹 Technology Social media
  1. Social media is increasingly becoming artificial, with bots and AI taking over real human interactions. These digital companions might seem helpful but they are not real friends.
  2. The rise of AI and superficial connections is causing loneliness, as people miss out on genuine interactions. Meaningful relationships require vulnerability and real dialogue, which AI can't provide.
  3. Some new platforms are showing that authentic connections can still exist. Apps focused on shared hobbies or interests are creating real communities, reminding us that human experiences are vital to social networks.

How to take our country back

Noahpinion • 26765 implied HN points • 06 Jul 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social media
  1. Many people feel a sense of loss for the America they once knew, as values like kindness and community seem overshadowed by anger and division today.
  2. Polls show a decline in Americans' pride in their country and traditional values, but some argue that core beliefs like hard work and tolerance are still very important to many people.
  3. Technology contributes to the current negativity, and there’s hope that by addressing these issues, a more positive and united America could be possible.

The Weekend Press: The Girls Who Hate Men

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 329 implied HN points • 28 Feb 26
🎭️ Culture Social media
  1. Many Gen‑Z girls are growing up distrustful of men. Family breakups and dating advice on social media often teach suspicion instead of trust.
  2. Coverage mixes high‑profile scandals with personal stories and confessions. Public controversies, political fallout, and individual transformations all share the spotlight.
  3. Internet and pop‑culture trends steer the conversation and reader engagement. TikTok fads, TV and sports moments, book excerpts, weekend picks, and dating classifieds are used to draw people in.

Social media destroyed one of America's key advantages

Noahpinion • 29235 implied HN points • 13 Jun 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social media
  1. Social media has trapped people together, making it harder to escape from differing views and decreasing trust among Americans. It was easier before to live separately and avoid conflicts.
  2. The rise of smartphones and social media has led to increased feelings of unhappiness and anxiety among people, especially educated liberals who are facing challenges from their peers.
  3. America's unique culture of geographic sorting allowed for diverse opinions to coexist more peacefully, but social media has broken down those barriers, leading to greater polarization and conflict.

Jonathan Haidt: The Devil’s Plan to Ruin the Next Generation

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 6014 implied HN points • 25 Nov 25
🎭️ Culture Social media
  1. Constant convenience and distraction from smartphones and social media quietly erode young people’s attention and wellbeing, functioning like a slow, unnoticed harm.
  2. Researchers have documented a sharp decline in Gen Z mental health since the early 2010s, and growing evidence links that drop to smartphone and social media use.
  3. Early worries about overprotection gave way to a focus on technology, with the age kids first get smartphones emerging as a key factor tied to later mental wellbeing.

Desire Digest 003

Many Such Cases • 1538 implied HN points • 16 Aug 24
🎭️ Culture Social media
  1. There is a big difference between how men and women view desire in relationships. Women may see a proposal of marriage as a compliment, while men might feel it's a slight to their sexual appeal.
  2. Some dating apps are finding success by limiting choices, like allowing only one match at a time. This could show that less choice might lead to better connections.
  3. There's a push for more honest conversations about mental health and relationships. Many people feel more disconnected despite talking a lot about mental health awareness.

Being a Writer in the Age of the Influencer

Rob Henderson's Newsletter • 5284 implied HN points • 07 Dec 25
📚 Literature Social media
  1. Writers today need to build a personal brand on social media to reach their audience effectively. Simply writing isn't enough; they must engage and connect with people online.
  2. Content creation is key for writers, but it shouldn't be just ads. Sharing interesting and entertaining posts helps build a loyal following and creates interest in their actual work.
  3. The landscape for writers has changed, with many preferring video and audio over reading. To succeed, writers have to adapt and become more versatile by using different media.

Europe Fires a Speech Warning

TK News by Matt Taibbi • 4846 implied HN points • 05 Dec 25
🕹 Technology Social media
  1. The EU fined X €120 million under the Digital Services Act for a deceptive verification program and for denying researchers access, making X the first company punished under the law.
  2. Europe is divided on tech rules: Brussels is still enforcing the DSA even as some leaders push to loosen regulations to attract AI investment, while national authorities like Germany are tightening content monitoring.
  3. The DSA enforcement is shaping a global template for platform regulation, influencing debates about free speech, platform power, and how other regions may regulate online content.

Dating Roundup #11: Going Too Meta

Don't Worry About the Vase • 1702 implied HN points • 23 Jan 26
🎭️ Culture Social media
  1. Where you live drastically changes your dating chances — some cities (like NYC) offer far more and different opportunities than others.
  2. Personal choices matter: being okay earning less than your partner, keeping fit but not obsessive, and having confidence can noticeably improve dating success.
  3. The dating ecosystem shapes outcomes — apps and viral takes can harm mental health and effectiveness, while real-world tools like matchmakers or honest in-person effort often work better.

Dark Woke as Redemption for Whites

Richard Hanania's Newsletter • 1316 implied HN points • 05 Feb 26
🎭️ Culture Social media
  1. Dark Woke is a social-media trend of aggressive, trollish left-wing messaging that uses memes and shocking jokes to mock or intimidate political opponents.
  2. It marks a shift away from focusing on systemic privilege and structural harms toward blaming and attacking individual "bad actors" instead.
  3. The movement normalizes dark or violent humor that earlier progressive norms would have rejected, changing how political debates are fought online.

Best of Advertising: Forget Influencers, Focus on Narrative

The Social Juice • 66 implied HN points • 14 Mar 26
💼 Business Social media
  1. A product needs a strong narrative; without a compelling story, influencer marketing and ads become more expensive and less effective.
  2. Brands can create big attention cheaply by controlling the story — through events, keynote-style reveals, familiar faces (even CEOs), or stunts that make the product unignorable and invite organic creator coverage.
  3. The industry is shifting: brands are experimenting with rebrands, mascots, partnerships and AI-driven creative, while agencies restructure and new measurement tools change how advertising performance is judged.

This Week in Marketing: Instagram has links, Disney is Quibi, and Perplexity exits Amazon

The Social Juice • 53 implied HN points • 15 Mar 26
💼 Business Social media
  1. Social platforms are racing to capture attention with new formats and creator tools, from clickable links and edit features on Instagram to Disney’s vertical 'Verts' and TikTok’s radio and podcasts.
  2. AI is reshaping content and commerce but also causing legal, safety, and trust headaches — shopping agents face blocks, deepfakes and misinformation are rising, and publishers are pushing licensing and protections.
  3. Big tech is changing business models and controls by shifting costs to advertisers, altering privacy and moderation rules, and rolling out ad and AI features that could reduce traditional traffic and revenue.