# How exactly does Solid decouple data and applications?

**URL:** <https://forum.solidproject.org/t/how-exactly-does-solid-decouple-data-and-applications/100>\
**Category:** Solid: The Basics\
**Created:** [October 18, 2018, 5:48pm UTC](https://forum.solidproject.org/t/how-exactly-does-solid-decouple-data-and-applications/100 "2018-10-18T17:48:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 17

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**Author:** ![Trond](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Trond](https://forum.solidproject.org/u/Trond)\
**Post date:** [March 7, 2019, 9:34pm UTC](https://forum.solidproject.org/t/how-exactly-does-solid-decouple-data-and-applications/100/17 "2019-03-07T21:34:11Z")

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Would it not be _easier_ for an app - like a social web page - to just store links to your data (profile, comments…) than the data itself? And is this not the whole point of Solid? I’m a newbie to Solid myself, and trying to figure out how a social platform would work with pods. My understanding so far is that instead of storing data, you’d just store references. Thus, when looking at a profile, or a conversation, the app would have to pull all the data from pods using the links provided by each user, basically re-generating content on the fly. And this would (at least considering storage space) be easier for the app or platform in question, albeit maybe providing a somewhat slower experience for the users. Right?

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