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19th of February, 2022
The modern internet has coalesced around a few big sites, run by a few big companies. Social media giants absorb the vast majority of ordinary people's creative and expressive engagement with the internet. Many, myself included, spend much more time on social media than we would like. Creating a giant, decontextualized flood of micro-thoughts may benefit the corporate entities behind Twitter or Instagram, but does it benefit real human beings? Is this what we really want?
Lately, I've been obsessed with blogging, because I find that blogs are structurally better at providing what I want (and generally fail to get) from Social Media™. I want to learn new things, but social media rewards shallow discussion. I want to know my friends better, but social media platforms exert a normalizing force (Twitter-self, Facebook-self, Instagram-self). Ultimately, it feels like I'm getting to know the platforms rather than the people on them.
Social Media is a giant, twisted knot of corporate abstraction, always seeming to point back towards its own relevance, its own inevitability. But because it is centralized and tied to the whims of capitalists, it will never truly prioritize the needs and desires of the vast majority of its users. Blogs have the structural opportunity to feel like human spaces. A little zone, browsed by visitors, decorated or tinkered with. A space where the author sets the tone.
That's why I have gradually stopped posting on Twitter, Instagram, etc. And began building this blog. From now on, I will be publishing whatever I deem important in my life here, deadstar.one[1]