A letter from the founder.
Angry Ghosts
In college, I had a phase where I used Twitter as my personal private thought journal. But with no feedback, it eventually became a backroom filled with the ghosts of my own thoughts, so I stopped. A few months ago, I deleted Instagram and Threads in an impulsive fit. And to this day, despite feeling a strong urge to share thought fragments, half-formed ideas, and a vivid dream I had about elephant bees, I still feel strangely reluctant to re-download them.
To Be Met
I think it's very human to want to share more deeply, beyond a cute selfie or a beautiful stray cat in the neighbourhood. Those things are amazing too, don't get me wrong. Stray cats deserve their spotlight.
But there's something quietly satisfying about having pieces of your inner life meaningfully engaged with by the right audience. Not skimmed. Not reduced to content. Actually met. However, social media today rewards performance and virality. So participating online now comes with its own charming set of side effects, including but not limited to: low-grade anxiety, the pressure to perform, and the occasional need to please the god of the algorithm.
The Cocoon
And even when I was not posting, consuming didn't feel much better. The feed was not exactly built for discovery. I found myself inside the infamous cocoon, watching whatever the algorithm had decided was my personality that week. Slowly, I drifted away from most social media altogether.
About Us, About Lain
I think it's odd that after roughly 35 years of the internet supposedly connecting the world, and 28 years since Serial Experiments Lain, I still could not find one corner in this vast network of data and glass fiber for the small signals of my life. So the idea for LOOM came to me while I was unemployed and living at home, walking along a snow-covered trail in the woods behind my house in early winter. As one does, apparently.
About LOOM
LOOM is a slower social platform for personal, low-performative self-expression. We welcome shorter, messier ideas as much as longer-form creative writing, essays, journals, and even fanfic. We are deliberately designing its features to prioritize a thoughtful social experience and aesthetic sensitivity over speed or scale. We care about how those choices affect the way people share, read, and connect.
