our social web

In the beginning

We had places.

Conversation had memory.
Disagreement had context.
You could be wrong and still remain human.

You spoke,
And a human answered.

On the places we built,
People were key.

We shared what we want,
Enough to say hello.
Enough to be real.

We were participants. We were owners. We had community.

And then something happened.

It was ever so slow.

Nothing collapsed.
Nothing was taken.

We kept building places.
But they now built platforms.

People became users.
Users became data.
Data became profit.

Speech became content.

Interchangeable grains
in TheirSpace,
sorted by rules we cannot see,
by people we will never meet.

Invisible rules from invisible rulers.

Connection is no longer the goal.

Extraction is.