Consensus reality—our broad, shared understanding of what is real and true—has shattered, and we’re experiencing a Cambrian explosion of subjective, bespoke realities. A deluge of content, sorted by incentivized algorithms and shared instantaneously between aligned believers, has enabled us to immerse ourselves in environments tailored to our own beliefs and populated with our own preferred facts.

On the eve of the second Trump administration, I just finished reading Renée DiResta’s Invisible Rulers. It was an enjoyable and informative read and I think you’d be hard pressed to find a better account of the ways social media has completely changed the nature of public discourse, power and influence, and as a result our country and the world.

We don’t know what the next four years will bring (I’ll take the over on “it’s going to be bad” if we’re taking bets). It’s very clear we wouldn’t be here without the dynamics DiResta details in the book and if you want to be an informed and empowered citizen within this new information ecosystem, I recommend checking it out. Oh - DiResta’s also an excellent follow on Bluesky.