A New Beginning
I, like many others I imagine, have found myself on my phone much, MUCH too often the last few years. Instagram, TikTok, Youtube, Reddit, Twitter, Discord, Facebook, repeat. I am doomscrolling away hours of my life swiping up on a screen, drowning in content I don’t actually want or even care about. All of this coupled with the proliferation of AI in seemingly every corner of the internet, the internet feels lonelier than it has ever been. I need to change something and it needs to be sustainable, this blog is a step in that process.
So here is where I am at.
Twitter/X
Deleted 2 years ago
My first social media to fall, didn’t use it often but my personal values made it imperative I delete my account. Enough said.
TikTok
Deleted 4-5 months ago
Honestly this one was significantly easier than I thought it would be. It helped that soon after I deleted it I went on a 2 week trip to Japan, which was proof that I was just bored more than anything. I did use it extensively to find points of interest for traveling and locally - this will be a gap I need to fill.
Deactivated 1.5 weeks ago
Like ripping off a bandaid. Outside of Marketplace, I don’t miss Facebook at all. BTW do people still use craiglist?? The AI slop everywhere on Facebook made it nearly unusable for me anyway. The deactivated status lets me keep Messenger so a few people can still contact me… for now.
Deactivated 1.5 weeks ago
Instagram still has some semblance of an actual social media but reels would drag me in, the AI slop on my feed was prevalent as well. As I have been trying to surround myself with more creative outlets, a lot of links still lead to Instagram. Still trying to decide what the best course of action is here.
Reddit/Discord
Active
Grouping these together as I have a similar philosophy for both. I have gone through a major culling of which subreddits and Discord groups I actually care about. I now limit my browsing to those that are left, I’d say it has been extremely successful.
Youtube
Active
Same sort of thing here, cleaned up my subscriptions a bit but don’t see myself getting rid of Youtube anytime soon. I stay away from Shorts as much as I can.
Why I am here
To feel like a human on the internet again and not a data point that the algorithms are trying to manipulate. I want to share the projects I am working on without feeling like I need to chase upvotes or likes or anything else. And most importantly, to interact with other like minded people.
If you have read this far, thank you! Still learning the ins and outs of Markdown and CSS. It has been a while since I have written anything even slightly long form. It feels good but there is some more rust there I need to brush off.
-Matt