I'm all for Elon Musk's mission to get to Mars. Can we send him there now?
Today, I'd like to talk about the internet and our place in it. So many conversations I'm having these days are about social media and how it just ain't what it used to be. Our friends don't post. Our feeds are rage-bait. And we feel dead inside. But there's no obvious answer. Enshittification is the word of the day, and for one reason or another, the age of the general-purpose platform is behind us. Thank heavens.
The other day, I was chatting with a fellow writer and we shared our laments about platforms. It was the sort of conversation where you blather on about everything and nothing at the same time. He told me he doesn't waste time with Reddit.
"Reddit is just like Twitter, except someone can take down your post," he said.
Sure enough, I tried to post an article about Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of bitcoin, on the bitcoin subreddit last fall. It got taken down immediately. A few months prior, I had the top post on that same subreddit. The topic? Dunking on moderators from another subreddit.
Do I want to squabble with this nonsense? No. Am I tempted to do it anyway? Yes. Half my readership comes from Reddit. In the words of Oliver Twist, please, sir, may I have some more?
A platform is supposed to be something that elevates you, but these platforms mostly elevate themselves. Today, you get penalized for sharing a link, and increasingly, the goal of these feeds is to lobotomize us all with short-form video.
I like to think of social media platforms today as massive cruise ships. Each boat is full of people who outwardly seem to be having a good time, and there's enough content onboard to keep them entertained indefinitely. But the drinks are watered down, you'll probably feel sick after a while, and there's no getting off the boat. It goes where the captain says it does. Hopefully, it's not toward an iceberg.
If you decide to leap overboard, however, you're on your own. And that's where I am.
I have one point of clarity though. I'm no longer interested in building a following on another walled garden. I've been doing this my whole life, and the best platform was MySpace 20 years ago because it let me do whatever I wanted. Seriously, what is the point of the internet if you can't share a link anymore?
You are what you engage with. I'm going to spend my time away from these platforms, reading books, and writing what I actually care about. My novel manuscript is coming together. I'll join the IndieWeb and build my own site however painful it may be. When the need arises, I'll broadcast via RSS and Nostr and let the chips fall where they may. I'll take slow, organic, and word of mouth over chasing some viral accelerant that ultimately leads to a soulless place. If I post on social, consider it my way of picking up stragglers.
I'm in a little rowboat paddling to parts unknown. If I end up talking only to myself, whatever. It will be a great mental exercise and I'll save money on therapy.
We don't need an algorithm. We don't need a moderator. These things were guardrails built by startups in need of a cash-in. Enough time has passed now that we act like these controls have always been there. They don't have to shape the future of human interaction. I don't need to have my journey optimized for me.
If you feel the same way I do, come aboard, friend. Row away from the trending and toward the timeless. We may be fighting against the tide, but at least we're charting our own course.
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Cover photo: Lucas Kohoko