There’s been a lot of people noticing that the internet isn’t as fun as it used to be. Not that it was perfect in the past, but there’s a sense that what was once weird and quirky and full of potential (while still having a number of rough edges) is now mean and manipulative and controlled by a small number of large companies.
For many of the more tech savvy people who are feeling this, there’s a lot of push to leave all of these unpleasant places behind and live entirely in alternative spaces. This might mean getting Google out of your life, leaving Twitter or Facebook or whatever major platform. But that’s hard if you want to interact with people who don’t think about tech all the time. It’s the digital equivalent of homesteading.
I’ve been trying to be more conscious about trying to make my online life more pleasant in pragmatic ways. Ways that make me happier without feeling isolated from my less tech focused friends. More “growing some of my own food at home” and less “moving into a cabin in the woods”.
Actual Social Networks I’ve never found Twitter or Instagram to be particularly toxic places and I think that’s because I’ve used them in an odd way. I only really follow people I know personally and I try my best to avoid algorithmically suggested posts. I will sometimes manually visit the profiles of interesting accounts, but the extra friction prevents me from passively consuming everything they post in perpetuity. This means my feeds on these sites are mainly friends and old coworkers who I actually like. I’m sure I’m missing a lot of funny videos and maybe some interesting content, but I think I’m happier this way.
Tending My Own Garden That said, I’ve been less inclined to engage on other people’s platforms lately. The internet was weirder and more fun when it wasn’t just people posting to handful of huge sites. I’ve been writing more on Don’t Break Prod and doing more little updates to this site, with the plan to share more things here. Again I haven’t deactivated my accounts on any major sites, I’m just not really interested in building my castle in other people’s kingdoms (even if that costs me priceless things like “engagement”).
Let’s Get Weird Again Finally, I’m looking around more for weird fun things on the internet. People just building stuff because they wanted to see it exist. While a lot of the internet feels mean or angry or hustle focused or just un-fun in a lot of ways, there are still lots of people who just want to make cool stuff and share it. It’s out there if you just poke around a little bit. I’m hoping the stuff I put out there contributes just a little to making the internet a bit weirder.
I don’t think it’s just rose colored glasses that make me think that the internet was more fun in the past. While many things have gotten better, something valuable has been lost. You can’t go back, but you can focus on the things that make you happy and minimize the things that don’t. It’s not as bold a statement as dramatically quitting Facebook only talking to your friends who use Signal, but the internet can still be fun if you just don’t wallow in the worst parts of it.