Editorial illustration for Reddit Founder Says Building Social Media Apps Is Not Cool Anymore
Reddit Founder: Social Media Apps Aren't Cool Anymore
Alexis Ohanian cofounded Reddit in 2005 and left the company's board in 2020, stepping down in the wake of George Floyd's killing so a Black board member could take his seat. Five years later, he's telling audiences the thing he helped build is finished as a model. Speaking with WIRED senior correspondent Lauren Goode at the inaugural WIRED World Fair, Ohanian said building social media apps is "not cool anymore," a blunt verdict from someone who spent his career doing exactly that.
His argument centers on what he calls the "Dead Internet Theory," the idea that bots and AI-generated content now account for a huge share of online activity. Large language models, he argues, have sped that process up, with AI agents increasingly outpacing actual human users on the platforms built to serve them. Ohanian now runs the venture capital firm Seven Seven Six, which manages more than $1.3 billion in assets, and has shifted his own attention toward sports and the real-world communities around it.
He's also said he no longer blames a man he knows who covered up a Reddit tattoo, once a badge of the platform's cultural reach. Here's what Ohanian thinks comes next.
Alexis Ohanian wants to figure out the future of user-generated content. According to the Reddit cofounder, building social media apps is “not cool anymore” and so much of the internet has been compromised.
Why this matters
Ohanian helped build the platform model that defined the last two decades of the internet, and now he's telling WIRED the format is spent. That's worth sitting with. For founders chasing the next UGC app, the message isn't subtle: the feed-and-follower playbook is crowded, compromised, and apparently embarrassing enough that people are covering up Reddit tattoos.
Ohanian's bet on "a better version of the group chat" is vague, but the instinct behind it is concrete. Users are retreating from open, algorithmically-sorted platforms toward smaller, closed, trust-based spaces. That shift has real implications for anyone building AI products on top of social data.
Training models on public forum content gets harder if the content itself moves into private chats. And Ohanian's own pivot, from consumer social into sports-focused venture capital with $1.3 billion under management, says something about where smart money thinks the returns are now. Founders should take the signal seriously even if the destination he's describing is still fuzzy.
The open web that made Reddit, and a lot of AI training data, may not refill itself the same way twice.
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Common Questions Answered
Why did Alexis Ohanian step down from Reddit's board in 2020?
Alexis Ohanian stepped down from Reddit's board in 2020 following George Floyd's killing, specifically to make space for a Black board member to take his seat. This decision reflected his commitment to promoting diversity and representation within the company's leadership.
What is Alexis Ohanian's current stance on building social media apps?
According to Ohanian, building social media apps is "not cool anymore" and he believes the traditional platform model that defined the last two decades of the internet is now spent. He argues that much of the internet has been compromised and the feed-and-follower playbook has become crowded and compromised.
What alternative to traditional social media apps is Ohanian exploring?
Ohanian is interested in figuring out the future of user-generated content and has mentioned exploring "a better version of the group chat" as an alternative to conventional social media platforms. While this vision is described as vague, it represents his instinct to move beyond the traditional social media model.
Why does Ohanian's criticism of social media matter coming from a Reddit cofounder?
Ohanian's critique carries significant weight because he helped build the platform model that dominated the internet for the past two decades, making him uniquely positioned to assess its current state. His verdict that the format is "spent" and "embarrassing enough that people are covering up Reddit tattoos" signals a fundamental shift in how even social media pioneers view the industry they created.
Further Reading
- Reddit Founder Says Building Social Media Apps Is ‘Not Cool Anymore’ - WIRED
- Can a social app fix the ‘terrible devastation’ of social media? - TechCrunch
- Papers with Code - Latest NLP Research - Papers with Code
- Hugging Face Daily Papers - Hugging Face
- ArXiv CS.CL (Computation and Language) - ArXiv
