Narrative Provenance
Outlined in The Three Pillars of Digital Sovereignty, Connection challenges the "walled garden" model of social media (e.g., Facebook) where users are locked in by network effects.
"If you cannot take your friends with you when you leave, you are not a member of a community; you are a captive."
Field Notes
The Litmus Test: Can you export your followers/friends list and import them into a new system? If not, the platform owns your relationships.
Case Study: WhatsApp offers partial connection (E2E encryption prevents content surveillance) but fails total sovereignty because the social graph is tied to a phone number and the app itself is a closed silo.
Praxis
True Connection is embodied by open protocols like:
- SMTP (Email): You can email anyone, regardless of their provider.
- ActivityPub (Mastodon): You can follow users across different instances.
- Matrix: You can chat securely across a federated network.