Sam Gildea
Dogtooth Founder
New friends doing cool things is such a great part of living in this city, and as luck would have it, today’s guest is yet another friend-of-a-friend. Will Harvey aka DJ Steeltoe introduced me to Sam on a whim a few months ago while we met up on his 24-hour trip to the city. Upon meeting Sam, I was acquainted with his social media platform Dogtooth, a very minimal, non-algorithmic web platform where you can create a profile and share content, which is being described as an “outsider” social network. . I couldn’t agree more and even described it as a kind of analog digital diary to Sam, and its unique lack of algorithm and push notification center allows you to make your experience and expression on it completely your own. In fact, one of Sam’s favorite aspects is how it doesn’t create an experience that compels people to be glued to the site.
On the contrary, much of Sam’s creativity has been improved upon and become more honest by virtue of him cultivating creative hobbies that discourage from spending excessive time online. He does not have any social media aside from Dogtooth (hell yeah), he has started painting again (after a less-than-ideal experience in college in a painting class), he is making music that he loves, and is getting to use his job as a software engineer to improve the work he does on dogtooth (and vice versa). So much of this comes down to Sam unabashedly loving the internet and the experience he used to be able to have on it. Much like many people around our age, Sam grew up on Tumblr, Instagram, Twitter, etc. and loved that it allowed him to fall down creative rabbit holes and learn about parts of culture and history he found fascinating. But, at a certain point over the last half decade or so, social media – namely Instagram – became a profoundly different experience that, to put it plainly, no longer felt good.
That, and his experience with editing snowboarding videos and making music and feeling gratified by getting real time feedback on his work, allowed Sam to begin conceptualizing what a more ideal version of social media might look like. What started as his own personal blog turned into a social media site where his friends who were interested in having a similar platform could make their own profiles. Dogtooth is a growing platform where people can explore creativity in an unorthodox way; there are no trends to play into or chase, one has total control over who they see on their feed, and the more addictive parts of social media are either nonexistent or not readily available on Dogtooth. There is a purity and plain coolness to it that I am so charmed and excited by.
It goes without saying that as a person formerly hyper-fixated on fashion that now has a niche IYKYK creative project, Sam has impeccable taste and that extends to his style and his essentials. Ritual and uniform play an integral role the way he lives his life.
His uniform is a black pair of work pants, a black t-shirt, the worn-in Vans he skates in and wears to work, and a hoodie and beanie if it’s cold. Long live a monochromatic outfit. And fuck wearing athleisure in public, too!
His essentials (some of which I share) are:
1. Headphones (preferably wired)
2. Boston sports radio
3. Cursor for coding
4. Vegetables
5. Walking (very fast)
You can find listen to our conversation here & find Sam at @sam on dogtooth.space. See you there!
xx
Ahmari