Ghost Posting: Publishing for No One

The phenomenon of invisible posts is on the rise. At its core: the satisfaction of the ritual of publishing without the stress of performance

Tuesday Evening in Paris. HNY. I spent the holidays talking to ghosts…

Ghost posting—the act of publishing for oneself, without an audience or social validation—is a weak signal undergoing rapid expansion. It runs counter to the pursuit of virality and recognition, revealing a growing fatigue with the performative demands of social media.

Comme Moi - Across (2024)

A Cathartic Expression

The rise of private accounts with no followers fulfills several needs. To understand this practice, we must look at its adopters. On TikTok, some users explain why they have created invisible Instagram accounts, designed exclusively for themselves.

The most frequently cited reason is therapeutic: publishing content purely for the pleasure of self-expression, without feeding the algorithm.

This return to intimacy echoes the early days of blogging. Before social media turned publishing into a game of optimization and performance, personal blogs functioned as open diaries, stumbled upon by accident through search engines.

By reclaiming this spontaneity, ghost posting becomes a way to take back the act of publishing, escaping platform-driven logic. Instagram and TikTok, by design, do not encourage this behavior. A user with no followers, who follows no one, who doesn’t comment or like, is an “useless” profile in the eyes of the algorithm. These accounts are anomalies in a system built to maximize interaction.

Ghost posters also highlight the joy of preserving a record of their thoughts without the obligation to share. These intimate archives, freed from social validation, are part of the rituals humans develop to regain a sense of control. Far from the constraints of personal branding, this audience-free writing allows for freer, messier expression, less bound by the fear of judgment. It opens up the possibility for more nuanced reflection and raw experimentation.

Ghost posting thus becomes a space for creation, detached from social performance. It gives users the tools to express themselves without striving to become influencers.

Ghost, Are You There?

Not having an audience doesn’t mean fully escaping the illusion of one. Posting simulates communication, even in the absence of a recipient.

The theatrical analogy is fitting: stepping onto a stage in an empty theater, delivering a monologue, with no visible spectators—yet in a space that holds the memory of those who have sat there before.

We can also invoke Gilbert Ryle’s concept of the “ghost in the machine”: the idea that we structure our thoughts as if they were addressed to an imaginary audience. Ghost posting plays with this illusion—we write as if someone might read us, even when we know they won’t.

This need to speak without an audience also manifests in our interactions with artificial intelligence.

In the past, internet users turned to health forums, where technical discussions often morphed into more intimate confessions. Today, these disclosures have migrated to conversational agents like ChatGPT, which offer silent, nonjudgmental listening, with no social repercussions.

This shift marks a transformation in digital interactions. Whereas we once sought human interlocutors for comfort or advice, we are now turning to AI, which simulates an exchange without relational stakes.

Meta AI already promises to be a “live conversation partner,” a permanent interlocutor designed to satisfy our need to talk—even without a real audience. A new form of ghost posting where the machine plays the role of the invisible spectator… yet one we can still perceive.

A Ghost That Can Appear

Ghost posting can also be a way of sanctifying our most intimate content. We’ve already seen the rise of “finstas” (fake Instagrams), private accounts running alongside public ones, where only select followers gain access to less polished or curated content. On X (formerly Twitter), “burner accounts” allow users to tweet without linking their identities (at least in theory).

But a ghost account can also become a marker of absolute trust. Giving someone access to a private, audience-free space is like handing them the key to a hidden part of one’s digital existence. A rare invitation into what might be the last true form of online intimacy.

Expression of the Week: Intentional Dating

As Match Group (owner of Hinge and Tinder) reports a 3% decline in paying users in Q3 2024, and Bumble’s stock price has nearly halved in a year, a new trend is emerging: intentional dating. After years of swiping, a significant number of people are rediscovering the concept of matchmaking agencies—choosing to invest time in real-life events with a much clearer goal: finding a long-term partner.

Amazing links

• Are love songs disappearing? (Pudding)

• What are the most important skills in the AI era? (WEF)

Have a great week! This newsletter is written with love, passion, and (Parisian) coffee.

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My book “Alive In Social Media” is available on Amazon.