Ritual Social, The Future of Pinterest, and More!

Happy Sunday!

It’s been a tough few weeks in tech, with layoffs happening across the industry. Layoffs are never easy, and we’re thinking about everyone who’s been impacted. 

If you’re looking for a new opportunity, be sure to check out the Every job board on Pallet for jobs hand-curated by the Every team. And if your company is hiring, remember that you can post jobs for the collective to check out as well. 

Now, on to this week’s posts! 

We’ve got pieces on the two modalities of social apps, the slippery reality of status as a service, and the surprising future of Pinterest. Plus, a story about resilience—and a new episode of Cross-Functional and Friendly. 

Let’s dive in! 

In the Next Era of Social, Build Rituals, Not Habits

The way Anu Atluru sees it, there are two types of social apps. First, there are habitual apps—apps that thrive when you spend as much time on them as possible. Think of Twitter, TikTok, and YouTube. 

Then, there are ritual apps—apps that “aim to create regular, purposeful moments,” that are “at their best as a mindful microdose of meaning and feel-good.” Anu believes that the next era of social media will be defined by apps in this second category. In this post, she lays out why. 

Read.

Status as a Disservice

Nathan Baschez / Divinations

If you’ve been following the latest coming out of the new, Elon-ified Twitter, you’ve probably heard that there’s been a bit of a kerfuffle with blue checks—the system Twitter uses to denote particularly noteworthy accounts. Or used to. As of this week, what used to be a symbol of status can now be yours for the low, low price of $8 per month. 

According to Nathan, what’s happening at Twitter is a prime example of what happens when you place status at the center of your product experience without really understanding how status works. In short, it leads to boring apps that nobody wants to use. But there is a way out. In this post, Nathan points the way.