iām not sure what area youāre studying/working on, and which is the basis of your essay - also, as a newbie who isnāt well-versed on the culture here - i guess iāll just say some random misc thoughts about my experience so far!
there is something about this interface, i.e. the fonts, the emojis, the formatting, the colours, etc, thatās all so incredibly nostalgic of early tech. it looks like an elevated version of the bare websites they had us build with html/css in ict class. it also feels like a more text- and community-based tumblr, another platform that i found a lot of comfort and joy being on. i donāt have the introspection or technical knowledge to pinpoint what exactly it is about PI, and similar platforms (like tumblr) that makes them safe and comforting/less stressful to use compared to others, so iād be interested in seeing whether this is something your essay will touch on, or define!
maybe itās because itās still new and with a smaller user base than Big SMā¢ļø sites, but the culture here doesnāt seem to care about how many followers you have, or in getting the highest amount of engagement on everything you post! itās an even playing field where everyone iāve seen is just enthusiastic, helpful and thoughtful in their recs or general comments. a small detail, but i also like that specific ālikeā numbers arenāt displayed - it (maybe unintentionally?) removes a lot of subliminal pressure to up that figure!
PI is a happy, unencumbered space that makes you feel like a (pre-)teen exploring early tech and social platforms again, except instead of it being a collection of people u know irl, itās basically a bunch of friends from all over. and thatās something thatās been sorely missed, or perhaps even erased, from the cultures of other social media sites. thereās so much individualism and criticism there, and when you donāt receive engagement, youāre basically talking to yourself bc the algorithm wonāt pick up your posts & have them show up for other people.
thereās always something so special and personal when social sites such as this are in their early days, when the people participating are still genuine in their pursuit on them. the people gravitating towards being here are probably looking for the same thing as well, so i hope for nothing more than for it to stay like this.
Apr 26, 2024
Related Recs
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funny enough, my final college essay was on what going to change the hospitality landscape (im a hospitality major) in the future. this was 2010 and my answer was social media apps but esp twitter. but to be fair instagram/tiktok/spotify/fb business pages/everything really didn't exist. it was the first time businesses like restaurants and hotels had a direct and public pipeline to the customers and guests. it was just facebook and twitter as the big players (we were already basically done with myspace š„²) and foursquare was also a thing which was randomly big for hospitality!
anyways, all that said here's some of my random thoughts. this actually feels a lot like those days. this def gives into the web2/web1 nostalgia. it also reminds me a lot of people just looking to connect over random thoughts. i don't know the rules here, if there even are any, but i've noticed that no one is selling anything and i haven't seen any aff links. it's as if there's a mutual respect to not "influencerize" the place, even though this place really is all about influencing reccs if that makes sense? sure there are the personal profule promos (and i do them too!) but those are different than what you see on social media and not ads or paid content. at the end of the day, i think this brings back the connection and nostalgia of what so many of us have craved online! it's also a fun way to get to know different people and even get to know their own personal brands and follow on other platforms. another interesting aspect is that it's a raw look into what our interests are. you can tell just by following / asks who is interested in what. and all the advice here is fun, kind, and honest, which i def can't say about other corners of the internet. interested to see what others have to say too!
& shoutout the founders of this app -- i truly believe y'all created something special here <3
Apr 25, 2024
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a couple of my friends who worked at the seattle times + seattle stranger posted screenshots of their newly minted pi.fyi profiles on their ig stories (presumably after hearing about it in some journalistic capacity) and i was intrigued
being on facebook twitter and instagram for p much the entire time those platforms have been around made me really jaded so i was just generally excitable about new social media (was semi-active on clubhouse when that first launched, got really excited about dispo before david dobrik got megacanceled, etc.) and pi.fyi fit the bill
microblogging is so intimate and human and just feels central to the early-00s "wild west" vibe folks loved about the internet, how it was a space for limitless expression and delightful serendipity of finding someone / something cool online and knowing that it was a real person being real with you. as the channels for that kind of expression became rapidly streamlined and commercialized, the "share what you like" charter felt so fundamental to what the internet should be to me and it seemed like tyler + staff were working really hard on figuring out how to build tech that intentionally facilitated that over "website is for advertising" like literally everywhere else
definitely behave differently on here than other platforms; i don't really post elsewhere. ~2022 i mass deleted every social media app (first twitter then tiktok then ig then reddit then youtube) and deactivated a bunch of accounts, eventually went back to instagram to be able to easily connect with folks i met irl / tap into events in my city but didn't really post to the account before this last december. i am verbose to a fault (which i can't / won't be on other platforms) but pi.fyi feels like an app where that's actually ok and kind of good maybe? being verbose about the stuff you like kind of feels like the point of liking stuff
i would / have shared this site with friends! but i'm not quite shouting from the rooftops that people should come here quite yet for the following reasons:
1. i think that twitter + ig have fried people's dopamine receptors to the point that "number get big" is the point of social media for a lot of folks; that doesn't really happen here
2. being earnest online is decidedly not the point of social media for a lot of folks; that does happen here and i think people finding it organically and intentionally participating is why it continues to happen
3. "every white person in (or thinking about moving to) brooklyn: the website" is not a super appealing sales pitch for my friends, who are largely not white (i do think that's just the case while the site is so young tho)
but yeah, perfectly imperfect fuckin' rips and i think within 48 hours of being on here i decided to pay for pro. really excited to see where it goes as editorial continues to flourish and people continue to sign up ā there's something here that's been missing from digital space for a long time
Feb 13, 2025
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- Loving the early-internet vibe aesthetically and spiritually. In the latter sense, appreciate the democratic nature of the āeveryoneā tab - it feels wild and thrilling in the way of an aol chat space.
- In the same vein, mildly suspicious of the user spotlights; one of the reasons I left IG in favor of PI was the feeling that I was being fed paid or preferred content and it felt yuck. Popularity contests are out.
- Would be more inclined to pay for pro if there was some guarantee/agreement that the money was going towards keeping the platform ad-free *forever*.
- I like how it can function as a source of recommendations/aspirational user-generated content *and* as a personal mini- blog/collage of interests. I think that keeping its purpose flexible in this way would be smart. Suspect folks are burnt out on likes and follows and promotion, but love to digitally scrapbook towards self-actualization.
- Big yes to the āaskā feature, enjoy when theyāre wacky, and hope it remains central to the concept. Would maybe be more encouraged to engage upon opening the app if new, randomized questions were up top instead of recs.
Jan 27, 2025
Top Recs from @aubergina
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articles, interviews, essays, zines etc etc, geared towards creatives, specifically on emotional and practical guidance. you can even download the articles as pdfs! (not paid afaik)
Apr 25, 2024
May 9, 2024
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seriously. u might not think u need them but ur quality of life will be much better for it. also makes vacuuming easier.
Apr 26, 2024