Internet Instinct Theory: The Rise of Groupchats and Digital Intimacy

This essay explores the emergence of a new social instinct—'internet instinct'—as humans adapt to life lived inside networks. It argues that groupchats and chatbots are forming an emotional infrastructure where intimacy migrates into text bubbles. The piece profiles Sweetychat, a 250-member groupchat that began in early 2025 and has spawned offline events, a music festival, a newspaper, and a philosophical symposium. It references the Signal groupchat leak involving Jeffrey Goldberg and Pete Hegseth, Yancey Strickler's 'dark forest' metaphor, and philosopher Bogna Konior's ideas about digital identity. The essay claims that digital fatigue is the strain of evolution, and that groupchats are evolutionary niches for developing tele-empathy. It also mentions Meta's acquisition of Moltbook, an AI agent social network. The piece is published on NERO Editions and was written with social science support from Sweetychat founder Matthew J. Donovan.