Making sense of our digital breadcrumbs
An interview with Timehop co-founder Jonathan Wegner in celebration of my 3,000 streak (ahem, #FLEX)
This issue of Social Signals was written to Super Breath by Karen O and Danger Mouse, in anticipation of their reissue of the duo’s 2019 LP ‘Lux Prima’ set to be re-released on September 19. Gorgeous.
Hello and happy Friday! This week we’re digging deep into the concept of modern nostalgia as curated via technology, including an interview with Timehop’s co-founder. We’ve got a clip from my appearance on Lazer Loons talking about the first social-first election. And I’m sharing a new job posting on my team. 🚀 Plus all those good social signals you can rely on each issue. Thanks for reading! -Greg
Making Sense of Our Digital Breadcrumbs
Your life is leaving a legacy of digital breadcrumbs across the social web. And it’s worth a lot. If you know how to access it.
From posts to photos, check-ins to purchase data, we give the “echoverse” our content, our thoughts, and well.. our targeting data. And beyond helping people like me deliver better ads and messaging to you, what’s it worth?
Or rather, what do we get back?
Those breadcrumbs are memories. They can help you access your own modern nostalgia. And they can help you know the story of who you were to better know who you are today, so you can make changes for you you are yet to become.
Study the past if you would define the future. - Confucius
I know. We got deep quickly. Hang in with me.
This is the place that Timehop has come into my life, and as I cross the 3,000-app-opens-in-a-row streak (ahem, thank you thank you), I wanted to dig into that a bit. I interviewed Timehop co-founder Jonathan Wegener, and went hunting for context amidst too much data. Because that’s what wading through the mess of our digital data is all about.
Timehop Created the Marketplace for Personal Data Nostalgia
Timehop is an app that collects your old photos, posts, check-ins and blog posts from your platforms (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Swarm (Foursquare), Dropbox Photos, Google Photos, Flickr, Tumblr, and Apple Photos) and serves them up to you based on the day of the year. You can see content from “One Year Ago Today” or “13 Years Ago Today” and on and on.
But there’s a catch: you can’t go forward or backward. It’s just today in history. YOUR today in history. And you don’t want to miss it. Because it’s YOU.
Timehop started as an app called 4SquareAnd7YearsAgo that was created at Foursquare's Hackathon in February 2011. According to Wikipedia, a few months later Jonathan Wegener and Benny Wong launched PastPosts.com followed by And7YearsAgram before finally merging under a single brand: Timehop
“Everybody is starting to realize that there’s value in the past,” -Jonathan Wegener, TechCrunch, 2012.
Oh, and I was super into this from the beginning — well beyond 3,000 days ago. Here’s a photo of me posing with their Timehop Delorean at SXSW in 2012.
I’m a prolific fan of Timehop, in part because I generate a lot of content and love to tell stories. If you have worked with me, attended an event with me, are part of my circle of family and friends, or are anyway on my radar, there’s a good chance at some point I’ve texted you a Timehop memory. Or even taken a photo and then said, “One year ago from today I will send this to you.” Timehop is part of my daily operating system. And that goes back a long way…
But Timehop is not just for chronic over-sharers on social. The system syncs up with your photo archives to pull up images. If you have little people in your life and have photos of them growing up, this is so powerful. If you use Swarm (aka Fourquare), it can help you remember where you’ve been. And most importantly, it offers context
Context for Your Day in History
How many pictures do you have on your phone? In your iCloud or Google Photos? Think of how much data you’ve collected and how worthless it is without data.
By adding a filter of context (today in history), Timehop has added a meaningful reason to revisit some of this data. Since Timehop’s launch, platforms like Facebook, Apple and Google have copied this feature with great success. And honestly, it kind of reduced the need for Timehop itself.
Through the lens of modern nostalgia, these platform tools have offered us a more meaningful relationship with our data, and thus, the ability to access, consider, and share memories in a really impactful way.
And yes, there are memories you probably wouldn’t want resurfaced. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a tweet or a check-in or a photo and thought, “Maybe that memory was okay having faded.” And then I delete or hide that stuff. BYE!
And it’s within that tension that I’m writing today. What does modern nostalgia mean today? How will it affect the next generation? I figured I may as well as the app’s creator what he thinks.
🎤 An Interview with Timehop co-founder Jonathan Wegener
Digging deeper into this topic, I had the opportunity to interview Timehop co-founder Jonathan Wegener about the history of the app, the need it solved 13 years ago and how the next generation may think about modern nostalgia.
GREG: When you founded Timehop in 2011, what problem were you looking to solve?
Jonathan: Timehop actually grew out of a bunch of fun experimental products we were building around foursquare and location in 2010 and 2011. Foursquare was the hottest startup at the time, they had just released an API and Benny (my Timehop cofounder) and I were huge fans of the product.
We started messing around with the API to create all sorts of interesting mini products for fun. For example, i create a service that would auto-introduce any friends of mine who checked into the same place at the same time but didn't already know each other. Another mini app would simply text me if anyone was within 1/4 mile of my house in brooklyn. Another was a crazy mashup of Foursquare/Venmo/Twilio/Groupme. I called the collection of miniapps "Moresquare" -- and actually got invited into the foursquare office to demo them all.
4SquareAnd7YearsAgo was the 11th or so mini app we built -- and that ultimately became Timehop.
To me, there's huge categories of consumer products that doesn't fit into the "problem/solution" framework. When people used to ask me that question, i'd reply with "what problem does a photograph solve?" Whatever they'd answer i'd say "well then timehop solves the same problem!" :)
G: Now in 2024, do you feel like we still have those same problems? New problems?
J: We certainly have a bigger digital footprint than ever before! When we started the company, we struggled to ingest *enough* content -- something like 70% of people didn't have ANY memories on a given day, and we couldn't serve them a timehop. Now, it's the opposite problem :) it's figuring out of the dozens of items, which is the most relevant/interesting content from the past.
G: With lots of Gen Zers sharing less content on public social and more in "dark social" channels, how do you think they will consider their digital breadcrumbs versus previous generations?
J: I think about this a lot too. So many of my memories are stuck in Instagram Stories' Archive, or Snapchat Memories, both of which have no easy API to access them. And of course, private messaging is...private. But at the end of the day, if you take a photo on your camera roll, it's generally because the moment is important and you want to capture it!
G: Nostalgia is different for every person and of every age. Gen Alpha supposedly spends more of their social time in metaverse worlds (e.g., Minecraft, Roblox, Fortnite) and watching YouTube than traditional social. How do you think they will consider social nostalgia as they grow up?
J: I grew up playing Half-Life a lot (specifically Counter-strike, and Team Fortress Classic). The maps from that game were SO rich and i spent so much time in them, I still occasionally have dreams that i'm in that world. I have to pinch myself and remind myself that it's *not a real place* and i was never ACTUALLY there with my body!! Overall I think virtual experiences can be just as powerful as real experiences, and just as memorable and nostalgic!
G: What I have most loved about Timehop is it helps me remember who I was so I have a more accurate picture of who I am today. As a storyteller, I know I'm constantly telling myself the "story of me," and Timehop has helped me knit together all of the bits and bytes of my young adulthood -- good, bad, and ugly -- to help me remember what I had forgotten. To help me know myself in ways I know my parents and grandparents simply don't have the records of to go back and look. To remember that one trip. That one friend. That concert. And sometimes that sad or hurtful moment you wanted to forget. How do you think folks today want to use technology to enhance our memory, memorialize our nostalgia, and share our history of the past to know more about today?
J: Yes! That's a great line: "help me remember what I had forgotten.”
I like to say "Timehop reminds me I've forgotten how much i've forgotten. It reminds me of what a beautifully rich full life I've lived thus far, and keeps me feeling grateful and thankful". I think it's impossible not to think about the past without also thinking about the present moment -- and comparing them. I think people enjoy wine tasting for a similar reason. Rather than just drinking a glass without thinking about it, when you stop to compare two items, you start to appreciate all the subtleties so much more.
Big thanks to Jonathan Wegener for the time to chat. If this sounds like your kind of thing, you can download Timehop here.
🎙️ My Interview on Lazer Loons
Last week I joined Joel Leeman on Episode 3 of Lazer Loons. From FDR’s Fireside Chats to today’s TikTok-savvy candidates, the evolution of political communication has always revolved around mastering the medium.
In this episode we chatted about how “new” forms of media have been pivotal in shaping Presidential campaigns over the past century. From radio to social media, each innovation has transformed how candidates connect with voters.
Listen to the whole episode here and follow Lazer Loons here.
🚀 Do You Like To Break the Internet for 💰? Let’s Talk
We’re hiring on my team at FINN, and this is a pretty special role. We’re looking for a senior leader who knows social, loves culture, and wants to join a team of digital and social-first marketers joining together to “Work Hard. Play Nice.”
Note: roots and/or deep knowledge of the state of Michigan is a big plus on this one. JD should be posted soon if not already.
Know someone? Is it you? Hit me up! 😎
⚡️ Social Signals
Threads continue to grow in its importance for real-time events and journalists sourcing opinions and “man on the street” quotes. Massive signal here in the past 6 weeks. For some brands, it’s to move Threads up into a prioritized channel for 2025. I’m seeing posts like the above more and more.
Question for you - do you find yourself neglecting to respond to texts? I do. Big signal here…
WTF of the Week: Bill Gates says solving misinformation is now young people's problem.
Apple Event Summary: Apple Event Recap in 12 Minutes! (iPhone 16 lineup, Apple Watch 10, new Airpods, and more). My thoughts on this: Imagine copywriting to optimize for AI summaries. That’s a thing now. Or will be shortly.
Study of the Week: Internet replaces TV as UK’s most popular news source for first time.
Guide of the Week: A Guide to Practicing Gender-Neutral Pronouns, For Well-Meaning Cis Friends and Family.
CarPlay Hack of the Week: Target just launched order pickup with Apple CarPlay.
Culture Story of the Week: The Carrie Bradshaws of TikTok by
.YouTube of the Week: Chef Reactions Visited The TWIN CITIES of Minneapolis-Saint Paul. Love this so much. It’s really a pretty special place.
Thread of the Week: A great strategic communications analysis of the Taylor Swift endorsement timing and messaging via
.LinkedIn Video of the Week: Brands are doing meme culture wrong.
Tweet of the Week: I made a digital bumper sticker that shows what I'm listening to on Spotify at any given moment! It's fully open source.
Podcast of the Week: Power User with
asks Why is Instagram Reels so unhinged.Reel of the Week: The technology of 1994 according to JC Penney catalog.
Insta of the Week: Watch this guy straighten manhole covers. This is my kind of OCD.
See you in the future! 🚀
Greg