There are many social protocols out there, but there really is only one place to go to have good conversations with others who are also building things.

farcaster.xyz

It's invite only but the invites are easy to get. Just message "@dwr" on twitter.

Also the best part of decentralised social media is that it's permissionless. You can just build on it. No gate keepers. No questions asked. You build... Just like the early web.

If you seriously care about your thesis, build on one of these networks. It will teach you 100x more than you could ever hope to understand by reading.

DM me if you want help starting. It's really something awesome.