Blog-core, Cyber Sincerity, and The Antidote to Social Media Cynicism — Enter: PI.FYI
In the mid-90s, a theory was floated across the California valley in the wake of the Dotcom boom. The Californian Ideology, a belief that this new boom of the internet would correct all of society’s wrongs and thus liberate the people, pushed an idea of technological determinism, or the idea that technology would forever augment and revolutionise our lives. Thirty years later, only half of this remains true. The birth of the internet forever revolutionised our lives, it turned a generation of people from community media pioneers into digital natives, and in turn into digital captives. Life online feels… bleak nowadays. As the early days of Web 1.0 (static, read-only, ‘blogging’ pages like MySpace and LiveJournal) got replaced with the more social web, content focussed Web 2.0 (Instagram, Twitter), the online world felt less like a place to escape to and more like a place to perform. As our feeds became saturated with promotional content, content creators, influencers, #sponcon and more, the internet and thus social media felt more isolating and performative than ever. Or, as this article puts it, the internet has become less about people posting, and instead more about people professionally entertaining you. The familiarity and community that was meant to come with social media is no longer the heartbeat of the online world.
And people took notice of this shift! People cried out on the internet how much less fun being online was now, how they hated social media because it made them feel shitty, and how they feel lonelier than ever because of a platform that was meant to unite us all. They yearned nostalgically for earlier days of the internet: blogging. Or at least more decentralised, community-oriented websites where posting felt more carefree and you didn’t have to orchestrate the perfect photo dump everyday. Writing a blogpost about your favourite movie didn’t have to feel curated for an audience, but was more just for yourself. Thus, blogging became “in'' again, a way for people to have fun online without feeling forced to conform. Authenticity gets thrown around a lot when talking about how people want to act online, but authenticity became so curated and performative on social media, people wanted a place to be a bit more… earnest and carefree.
During the pandemic, the online publishing and newsletter platform Substack became immensely popular. One Substack in particular took off, “Perfectly Imperfect.” Riding the early wave of Substack, Tyler Bainbridge, Alex Cushing and Serey Morm teamed up to launch Perfectly Imperfect, an email that's a hodgepodge of recommendations from their friends, peers, and even celebrities (in both the real sense and the chronically-online, internet famous sense). From Ayo Edebiri to Charli XCX, John Cale to Caroline Calloway, their recommendations range from their favourite films, transcendental meditation, Olaplex, and “Being Welsh.” And it felt distinctly different from the barge of “inauthentic” recommendations or sponsored content that’s pushed out on the daily. No one is being paid to say anything, highly niche recommendations are encouraged, and overall the vibe is more about breaking away from faceless algorithms and instead around fostering community. Every post in my inbox felt less like some new trendy product being shoved in my face, but like reading a personal blog of someone I really admired!
Click Here to Subscribe to Perfectly Imperfect
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Click Here to Subscribe to Perfectly Imperfect ★
60,000 subscribers later, PI.FYI was born. Following the success of over 400+ guest recommendations, Perfectly Imperfect invites their devoted audience to be their own tastemakers. PI.FYI is bringing sincerity and silliness back to our feeds, deconstructing traditional approaches to social media by taking away, well, the things that often make social media feel shit. No follower counts are displayed, profiles when scrolling feel anonymous, there’s a feeling of true positivity when posting. You’re encouraged to post what you like, and there’s not a pressure to conform or perform for others. The user-generated recommendation platform has been described by the New York Times as “Letterboxd meets Myspace,” and I think that’s true, but also combined with a gratitude journal, 2000s games like Poptropica, and a really fun, big group chat. Yes, there are some classic staples of social media: you can comment, you can like posts, you can post photos with your recommendation, you can “re-rec” things you like to show on your profile, but it all still feels deliberately no-frills. It also feels like blogging. As written in the New York Times:
“This is the internet as a medium coming full circle,” -Joseph Bernstein
…or small communities being built around niche interests rather than wide-spread, ‘fit-for-all’ content and algorithm-driven growth. Having idiosyncratic taste is encouraged on PI.FYI because it’s interesting, and breaks away from how mediocre widespread content on sites like TikTok and Instagram can feel. Culture becomes monotonous on big, fit-for-all apps, nothing feels special or novel because everything is so accessible and commercial. Nothing feels genuine and sincere because we’re all aware of an underlying need to promote, curate, and ultimately sell that comes with being a content creator. Now on social media, we’re solely the consumer, at the whim of selected ‘tastemakers’ paid to sponsor content, and true niche and idiosyncrasy is lost in the algorithm in favour of affiliate links and an inauthentic creator economy.
PI.FYI speaks to the golden age of blogging. Back when Tumblr was just a place to reblog pretty pictures, RookieMag was religiously read because of the honest love their writers had for what they wrote about, and the whole internet itself felt like more of a mood board instead of a store. The interface of PI.FYI is almost garish, a technicolour world of blinding blue, bright red, and yellow stars. The site feels like the manifestation of the comic sans font, in a good way. It’s all still bare-bones, but it still feels incredibly interactive and exciting amongst a backdrop of sleek, muted competitors. The DIY-feel of it all makes it more approachable, and dare I say wholesome? It feels like scribbling in a journal adorned with stickers and glitter, or adding little gifs and digital-stickers to a MySpace profile - everything feels uniquely your own, and thus feels like a space that you can act like yourself in, and not have to perform.
On PI.FYI however, anyone can be a “tastemaker,” which is refreshing in a digital world dominated by sponsored content and influencer culture. Realistically in my own life, I’ve always been more satisfied and happy with a lip gloss my best friend swore changed her life over some sponsored ad pushed on my TikTok feed by a nameless influencer. And also… isn’t that what bonds us? When I see my pals at the pub, we talk about our favourite movies, a great book we’ve read, a funny twitter post, a fun recipe, how eating an apple before bed has radically changed our life, because sharing things with your friends is fun! It’s also a wildly personal act, you don’t gate-keep from your friends, communities are fostered by bonding over shared interests and desires.
And it comes at a good time. Social media, as we know it, is dying. Twitter feels like a dumpfire world of cynicism and discourse politics, TikTok shop makes me feel weird, and Instagram only pushes me vaguely ED-related recipes of Christian meme content. It all feels bleak, and to make it worse, all the platforms are slowly morphing into each other. The strongholds in the app world, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and more are cannibalising each other, taking distinct aspects of the other and half-heartedly adopting it. Nothing feels particularly novel or exciting, it all just feels mid and the same. Even when I first downloaded PI.FYI, there was a weird desire to be a hater. I think it’s social media’s lasting impact, the hater-ification of it all: turning us all into sceptics and cynics behind an anonymous facade of a profile.
Ultimately, I think the ethos is summed up in Rayne Fisher Quann’s rec: “ BEING A GROUPIE.” Lamenting on the success of your friends and unapologetically being their biggest groupie and supporter is perhaps the most sincere thing you can do - and it’s something I like to think we all feel! We love our friends, and social media can feel like a tough place to truly celebrate the success of friends and peers without being corny. And while I subscribe to corniness as the best thing you can put onto our digital hellscape, it can feel hard to make it feel… sincere and uncurated? But not on PI.FYI - its the ultimate breeding ground for radical sincerity and embracing what you love, and most importantly, unapologetically showcasing what you love diva!
PI.FYI is not the first platform to herald itself as anti-social media, think — BeReal. We’ve seen flashes in the pan, flying too close to the sun of selling out, slowly fading from public attention. The main difference, in my eyes, is the true heartbeat of sincerity embedded into the platform’s ethos. BeReal still encouraged some “comparing” of oneself to others, and became a little too gamified. It’s easy to denote new apps and young networks as a flash in the pan, something people won’t care about in a few weeks. The early days of Twitter and Facebook were full of criticism, like why would anyone care about the everyday moments and thoughts of your life? As Kevin Nguyen writes for the Verge, “Maybe PI.FYI should relish this time, well before it has reached the threshold where bad actors inevitably flood the platform. When I[Nguyen] ask Bainbridge when he’ll institute content moderation, he admits it’s something he will have to think about in the future.”
Regardless of what PI.FYI becomes in the future, now it’s a testament to sincerity online and decentring influencer and consumer culture online. While still in beta-testing, it feels like a lil ol’ group chat with your besties, sharing your favourite things from the best pickle brand to the best way to spend a rainy Saturday in London. Come for its kitschy, DIY aesthetic and stay for the idiosyncratic return to a blogging-obsessed culture, distinct from today’s world of cynical curation and towards embedding our online habits with sincerity and community. Feel free to add me, or not! That’s not the point <3
Image Credit: Perfectly Imperfect, PI.FYI