Web in chains

Social media didn't kill the web. It imprisoned content.

Every week, users create 100 million posts on Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat. Meanwhile, only 100,000 new websites go live. Most social content vanishes quickly and search engines can't see it.

The trap is simple: Platforms bundle content creation with distribution. Post on Instagram, and Instagram owns how people find you. Build an audience there, and they can make it disappear overnight by tweaking an algorithm.

This isn't just a creator problem. The core promise of the web – that anyone could access anything through a browser – is breaking. Social platforms have built private content vaults that only their apps can open.

But the pendulum is swinging back. Smart creators are starting to separate creation from distribution. They're building their own content systems first, then pushing variants to different platforms. Like websites did before them.

The future won't be either social or web. It will be creators building bridges between them.