The Best Articles in Social Media
The most useful articles and videos in Social Media from around the web—beginners to advanced—curated by thought leaders and our community. We focus on timeless pieces and update the list whenever we discover new, must-read articles or videos—make sure to bookmark and revisit this page.
Top 5 Social Media Articles
At a glance: these are the articles that have been most read, shared, and saved in Social Media by Refind users in 2023 so far.
Videos
Watch a video to get a quick overview.
Everything is a Remix (Complete Updated 2023 Edition)
#ai #music #creativity GET AN EVERYTHING IS A REMIX T-SHIRThttp://www.everythingisaremix.info/shopSUBSCRIBE TO MY MAILING LISThttps://kirbyferguson.ck.page/9...
NEW! Most Popular Social Networks 2003
Timeline of most popular social networks from 2003 to 2022. Measured by monthly active users worldwide. Data source: press releases, 10-k sec filings, indust...
Reddit CEO calls unpaid moderators' concerns "noise"
👉 https://www.macrumors.com/2023/06/13/reddit-ceo-blackouts-no-revenue-impact/👉 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1668346845142339585https://youtu.be/U06...
How do teen girls really feel about social media?
In this episode, Dr. Jacqueline Nesi explains the results of Common Sense's latest research into teen girls, social media, and mental health. You'll learn wh...
How to have better conversations on social media
How would you describe your feelings about social media? Do words like “entertaining” and “connecting” come to mind — but also words like “exhausting” and “polarized”? You’re not alone if you find …
What is ...?
New to Social Media? These articles make an excellent introduction.
How to ...?
How to talk to conspiracy theorists—and still be kind
Experts and r/ChangeMyView subreddit moderators offer 10 tips to debunk conspiracy theories convincingly—and kindly.
How to see who viewed your TikTok profile
Only you can see who viewed your profile, but if you turn on the feature, then you're also consenting to let other people see that you've viewed their profile.
How to Dox Yourself on the Internet
A step-by-step guide to finding and removing your personal information from the internet.
Trending
These links are currently making the rounds in Social Media on Refind.
What is Influence
One cannot understand influence without knowing how to quantify it.
VPNs, Verizon, and Instagram Reels: how students are getting around the TikTok ban
“It’s like trying to ban meth.”
The Burning Man Fiasco Is the Ultimate Tech Culture Clash
Climate change, protests, tech, elitism, (untrue) Ebola rumors—everything converged when heavy rains left thousands of people stranded in the Nevada desert.
Social Media Algorithms Warp How People Learn from Each Other
Social media companies’ drive to keep you on their platforms clashes with how people evolved to learn from each other
Substack’s redesign makes it feel like a more traditional social media app
Discover posts and writers on the “Home” tab.
Short Articles
Short on time? Check out these useful short articles in Social Media—all under 10 minutes.
Paying Attention
Sherlock Holmes says in the book, The Study of Scarlet: I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes…
«Be willing to read anything that looks even a little interesting, but abandon it quickly and without mercy if it’s not working for you.»
TikTok is confusing by design
TikTok isn’t the way I want the internet to work, but it’s where the internet is going.
You Probably Don’t Know What ‘Phubbing' Is, But You Do It Constantly
A 2016 study explains why you can't stop looking at your phone, even when you are ostensibly having fun with your friends.
Secret Messages Can Hide in AI-Generated Media
In steganography, an ordinary message masks the presence of a secret communication. Humans can never do it perfectly, but a new study shows it’s possible for machines.
Permission
You have the power, not Google.
«Google has steadily been manoeuvring their search engine results to more and more replace the pages in the results.»
Long Articles
These are some of the most-read long-form articles in Social Media.
Reconstructing Our Attention in the Era of Infinite Digital Rabbit Holes
I’m going to tell you a few things you already know. Every time you open your phone or your computer, your brain is walking onto a battleground. The aggressors are the architects of your digital wo…
What is External Validation And When It Becomes Unhealthy
Learn more about external validation. Why we crave it. Why it can be a good. And how to heal from constantly needing external validation.
The Battle for the Soul of Buy Nothing
How an idealistic community for exchanging free stuff tried to break away from Facebook and ended up breaking apart.
Thought Leaders
We monitor hundreds of thought leaders, influencers, and newsletters in Social Media, including:
Benedict Evans
Trying to work out what's going on, and what happens next. Mostly tech.
zeynep tufekci
Complex systems, wicked problems. Society, technology, science and more. @Columbia professor. @NYTimes columnist. My newsletter @insight http://www.theinsight.org

danah boyd
sociotechnical researcher | Microsoft Research, Georgetown, Data & Society | zephoria@zephoria.org | (@zephoria@mastodon.social) | https://zephoria.substack.com
Neil Patel
Co-founder of Neil Patel Digital. New York Times bestselling author, top 100 entrepreneur under 30 by Obama, and top 10 marketer by Forbes.

Adrienne Fichter
Feminist Digital Killjoy. Investigative Tech Reporter @Republikmagazin und http://DNIP.ch. With 🇷🇺🇺🇦 roots.
What is Refind?
Every day Refind picks the most relevant links from around the web for you. Picking only a handful of links means focusing on what’s relevant and useful. We favor timeless pieces—links with long shelf-lives, articles that are still relevant one month, one year, or even ten years from now. These lists of the best resources on any topic are the result of years of careful curation.
How does Refind curate?
It’s a mix of human and algorithmic curation, following a number of steps:
- We monitor 10k+ sources and 1k+ thought leaders on hundreds of topics—publications, blogs, news sites, newsletters, Substack, Medium, Twitter, etc.
- In addition, our users save links from around the web using our Save buttons and our extensions.
- Our algorithm processes 100k+ new links every day and uses external signals to find the most relevant ones, focusing on timeless pieces.
- Our community of active users gets the most relevant links every day, tailored to their interests. They provide feedback via implicit and explicit signals: open, read, listen, share, mark as read, read later, «More/less like this», etc.
- Our algorithm uses these internal signals to refine the selection.
- In addition, we have expert curators who manually curate niche topics.
The result: lists of the best and most useful articles on hundreds of topics.
How does Refind detect «timeless» pieces?
We focus on pieces with long shelf-lives—not news. We determine «timelessness» via a number of metrics, for example, the consumption pattern of links over time.
How many sources does Refind monitor?
We monitor 10k+ content sources on hundreds of topics—publications, blogs, news sites, newsletters, Substack, Medium, Twitter, etc.
Who are the thought leaders in Social Media?
We follow dozens of thought leaders in Social Media, including Benedict Evans, zeynep tufekci, danah boyd, Neil Patel, Adrienne Fichter.
Missing a thought leader? Submit them here
Can I submit a link?
Indirectly, by using Refind and saving links from outside (e.g., via our extensions).
How can I report a problem?
When you’re logged-in, you can flag any link via the «More» (...) menu. You can also report problems via email to hello@refind.com
Who uses Refind?
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