Link Rot: ‘Social Decay’ Renders Tech Media Giants as Urban Abandonments

Physical businesses that fall on hard times often leave signs in the built environment, like the distinctive facades of deserted or adapted Pizza Huts, but what might social media sites look like in a post-apocalyptic, non-digital world?

For that matter, many giants, from Yahoo! to MySpace, have already crumbled and been replaced. But in this series, graphic artist Andrei Lacatusu imagines the still-strong and thriving leaders of the pack in a future state of IRL disrepair.

Like abandoned offices, retail stores, gas stations or movie theaters, signs for Google, Instagram, Facebook, Tinder, Twitter and Pinterest are seen withered, cracked and eroded by the elements over time. 404 Error: Business Not Found.

The result looks like gloomy snapshots of a ghost town with boarded-up storefronts and rusted-out metal security doors. And the details are quite convincing, with faded paint, chipped light-up signs and missing signage lettering.

This photo-realistic ‘Social Decay’ series was created with a combination of Adobe Photoshop and 3D rendering programs, Autodesk 3DS Max and V-Ray.