10 ms·

I'm done with social media – Or: why I have a blog now

301 points by anarbadalov 1y ago

mediumsmart 1y ago
Another step toward the ultimate wisdom which is: who cares? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41115911 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41115911
Leo-thorne 1y ago
I’ve been using social media less and less over the past few years. Especially short videos, they just make my brain feel foggy. At first I thought it was just distracting but later I realized it was affecting my mood and focus. Now I mostly use it to post photos and write more on my own blog, mainly for people I know. There is less interaction but it feels a lot more peaceful.
chistev 1y ago
Wrote something related on my blog - https://www.rxjourney.net/decoupling-from-social-media https://www.rxjourney.net/decoupling-from-social-media
Gud 1y ago
Me too. Let’s hope the micro net can survive. I hope for a curated, personal internet Link in my profile
jmclnx 1y ago
I even went further, I moved my WEB page to gopher and gemini, the real gemini :)
metabagel 1y ago
"Being a social media star is a skillset completely distinct from being someone who writes books — they may overlap occasionally, but it's not the norm." Absolutely
- raincole 1y ago
  I was about to comment on how much I agree with this quote. Then I realized that pretending to be witty on HN is a skillset that completely distinct from being someone who writes software as well.
  - legacynl 1y ago
    quod erat demonstrandum
- duxup 1y ago
  Same with coding, pretty much everything. I've met some folks, even taken classes from some people who are involved with some important frameworks and so on, all great experiences ... and yet their social media posts about coding are just pithy garbage, even when they try to say something important. At times the profession and social media posts straight up seem at odds where I think "I get why this limited number of words plays well on social media, but it's not correct... and I think it even indicted the opposite of what the words originally meant." Social media doesn't really make for a good communication channel for anything except social media.
anarbadalov 1y ago
As I just wrote to the author of this piece (who also happens to send out one of the best weekly roundups of weird and wonderful articles I get), her experience captures what so many authors I’ve worked with over the years in publishing have struggled with. When i can, i try to disabuse them of the idea that social media is somehow a reliable or necessary tool for promoting a book. As Caroline writes, if you already have a platform and it comes naturally to you, great, but I’ve personally never seen an author join social media in order to promote a book and actually succeed. And that’s before you even get to the exploitative dynamics she lays out so clearly here (aptly described as a pyramid scheme). Anyway, it’s all articulated beautifully, and I wish every author, especially those just starting to consider it, could read this and know there’s another way.
- zeta0134 1y ago
  I'm starting to sloooowly build up an audience as I work on my game project, and I can already tell I do not at all have the necessary drive to build that audience as large as it needs to be for the game to "go viral" based on that alone, no matter how good it is. No, I think the necessary evil will be actual marketing, possibly by reaching out to other streamers and whatnot that DO have those followings and seeing if I can spark their interest in the project. I know I don't have the mental energy to keep it up myself, especially not solo. I'll focus on what I'm good at: making the best game that I can, the sort of thing I'd love to play. The rest will have to be up to the experts in their field, which I am not.
vouaobrasil 1y ago
Same thing with LinkedIn for me specifically. I heard that it could be a great way to get a job. But then I tried it, was inundated with AI slop, and contacted by recruiters from companies that sounded dreadfully boring. And when it came to nearly 100% of the people I encountered there who were actually active, I'd rather freeze to death than work with them.
- 0xbadcafebee 1y ago
  Use it to keep in contact with peers from previous jobs. When they see you're looking they'll refer you internally, and that is 1000% more likely to land a job than submitting applications cold.
  - vouaobrasil 1y ago
    No thanks, I'd rather not use it at all. If people can't be bothered to keep in touch via email or something less disgusting than LinkedIn, I'm not interested in them anyway.
- Aurornis 1y ago
  The common way to use LinkedIn is to create a profile, keep it updated, and then ignore the platform until you need to use the job search function. The majority of people on LinkedIn aren't posting and interacting with things all day. To be honest, most people I know consider being highly active (posting) on LinkedIn to be a potential warning sign for a hire, because it's associated with people who will spend more time hustling on LinkedIn for their next job than working for your company.
  - vouaobrasil 1y ago
    > The common way to use LinkedIn is to create a profile, keep it updated, and then ignore the platform until you need to use the job search function. Personally, I've had better luck finding jobs in other ways (searching companies websites, using more old-school platforms like Indeed), compared to LinkedIn.
  - 1y ago
teekert 1y ago
Yesterday I got a mail from Facebook: "*Woman_I_have_known mentioned you on Facebook". Haven't used FB in years, mail looks legit, I get kinda curious. I tap it, and am immediately logged in, in DDG browser (which has 0 cookies when closing)! To top it off, she didn't mention me, she mentioned some #tag on some stupid lottery for a van. It's so disrespectful. So dirty. I know they don't give a * about me, but do they have to put it on so thick?
- AndriyKunitsyn 1y ago
  A mention without a mention - I get that, but why do you think it's dirty to skip the log in?
  - compiler-guy 1y ago
    If they had forwarded that mail to someone else--"Hey look! Someone mentioned me on facebook!"--then that second person could have logged into the first person's account with a single tap. It's scummy and terribly insecure to pass around someone else's credentials via email.
    - maerch 1y ago
      That was my first thought. This can go downhill pretty quickly. Nobody suspects that you expose your account with a link to a mention.
  - jmathai 1y ago
    Look at the context of the email he received. It's a lie to get him onto the site and to start scrolling. In that context, skipping the login is pretty dirty.
  - ivanmontillam 1y ago
    because though we know BigCo know too much about us nore than ourselves, revealling that ugly fact so frontally is tasteless.
- duxup 1y ago
stego-tech 1y ago
Between the fight over AI, shifting geopolitics reigniting old conflicts, an overly-centralized technology industry, a lack of meaningful innovation from a consumer perspective, and the immense precarity of modern work in general, it feels like we’re at the start of the end of a cycle. I’m noticing more people taking stock of what’s actually important to them and taking a stand on their values. This is good in the long run, but in the immediate it results in a lot of binary/black-and-white decision-making that results in dustups and conflicts between groups who would normally be allied behind common goals. All of this is to say that I expect we’ll see many, many, many more of these types of posts in the future, as everyone remembers they can choose to shape their engagement with technology, and that naturally includes the right to disconnect from it - not out of any sort of anti-technology position itself, necessarily, but simply from realizing that a specific thing isn’t something they need or are interested in, and that’s okay. Props to the author for being so clear about their engagement with social media, their background, and their thought process. If it encourages more folks to reassess their own relationship with social media (or any technology), I’m all for it.
- bigbuppo 1y ago
  I know a few people on the internet long enough to have IP assignments that were originally recorded in Jon Postel's notebook. They have always been on the forefront of everything new and exciting on the internet. Today, there's a fairly even split between bluesky, various mastodon instances, and going back and hanging out on IRC. Nobody that has been in the trenches for a few decades wants to touch an algorithmically-curated platform. If there's one thing twitter showed us it's that humanity isn't yet ready for the hive mind. As for me, I am on bluesky, but I limit who I follow to the point that I can mostly take in a whole week of posts in about five minutes. I'm at the age where a few hours of my time is a horrifyingly significant fraction of a percent of my remaining time on this planet. I have better things to do with that time than to squander it being miserable so the world's third richest person can get a little richer and buy another private island.
  - atavistically 1y ago
    [dead]
fambalamboni 1y ago
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billyp-rva 1y ago
> I think the persistent advice to authors to "do social media" is, at best, part of a strategy that can be generously described as throwing everything at the proverbial wall in the hope that something, anything, will stick. It also probably was pretty good advice until ~3 years ago.
tiniuclx 1y ago
I've been trying to use social media to promote my music & mobile app for years, to very little luck. I don't even really like using social media, but it felt "necessary" in order to "make it," even though there is nothing to see for all this effort. Sometimes Facebook et al feel like a complete ghost town, with algorithmic content completely overwhelming any engagement from friends or acquaintances.
- bee_rider 1y ago
  Social media networks start to suck as soon as your circle of friends graduates college. Mine is mostly one old friend posting about politics (and like, I agree with his politics but the stuff reposted on social media is hit by the dumb-viral filter and becomes unbearable even if you agree with it).
TechDebtDevin 1y ago
Yesterday I woke up, naturally, I started scrolling. The very first video (on Instagram) was an Uber driver getting pulled out of his car, a guy cocking a gun and executing him. I was barely awake and didn't really have time to react. For the rest of the day I couldn't stop thinking about it, had high levels of anxiety for a few hours. I told all my friends I'm switching off for a bit on the socials. Mastodon and signal for a bit. Edit: Just thinking about this happening yesterday puts me into a high state of anxiety.. Its absolutely bllsht these companies can effect us in this way. Second Edit: Its my choice to expose myself knowingly, not entirely blaming meta. And I'm not going to anymore, but this is a more common experience than usual since Zuck got a chain and Tall-T
- cantor_S_drug 1y ago
  Yudkowski mentioned a nice thought blurb about cancer. 1. More cancer cases being recognized efficiently. 2. More bombardment of cancer cases news through diverse outlets. 3. Social media refreshing our minds with same cancer cases, even 4-5 year old ones. 4. The same news circulating through offline interactions. This gives us insecurity that a particular disease is out of control. I think there was a Lesswrong post about this phenomenon.
  - TechDebtDevin 1y ago
    A couple assumptions you're making here I'd disagree with: 1. Yudkowski is ever worth listening to. 2. That this is just some antecdotal experience (the whole world is having), that isn't backed by any scientific merrit. I don't have time in the middle of my work day to go find all that, but we all know this is something measurable. How humans adapt remains to be seen, it seems like a lot of (young) people adapt by shoving the barrel of a gun in their... Maybe they would have done that anyways idk.
- hbn 1y ago
  > Its absolutely bllsht these companies can effect us in this way. I'd be one of the last people to defend Instagram/Meta/Zuck, but is that really your takeaway from this? Execution videos are absolutely against Instagram's TOS and I'm sure they want it on their platform even less than you. If anything, Instagram's issue is they're too heavy on the robo-censorship. My friend posted a photo of him standing on one leg with a chair in his hands, making a goofy face, with the caption "I'm gonna hit you with this chair!" directed at no one in particular, and it was taken down for, quote: "encouraging violence and leading to risk of physical harm, or a direct threat to public safety." Appeal was rejected too, and the post had to be deleted. This happens because they're trying to moderate against people posting execution videos. One slipped through the cracks seemingly, but it's not like they don't put a lot of effort into preventing that. It's pretty hard to do at Meta's scale where most of the earth's population is using their platforms.
andsoitis 1y ago
welcome to the anti-social club!
- cwoolfe 1y ago
  yes. the irony is that social media promotes para-socialization to the detriment of actual socialization. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsaeFYGbK2M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsaeFYGbK2M
stickfigure 1y ago
It isn't clear from the title but becomes clear in the second paragraph: She's saying "I'm done trying to use social media for commercial purposes".
- compiler-guy 1y ago
  She is no longer posting personal content on social media apps either. She will send you stuff via her newsletter though. But that's more than just abandoning it for business reasons.
  - rzz3 1y ago
    Is this an email newsletter? I’d never see it.
    - compiler-guy 1y ago
      I think the entire point is that to find out about it, you have to have a much higher level of interest in the topic than someone who would find out about it via algorithm and virality.
  - stickfigure 1y ago
    Sure but she's frustrated because she's trying a use case that does not apply to most social media users. You can have a miserable experience in competitive races but it's a bit heavy handed to swear off jogging entirely.
rzz3 1y ago
More and more Hacker News seems to be the contrarians and the “get off my lawn”s when it comes to AI and social media alike. I feel like there was a time in the late 2000s to early 2010s where we were still young and our skills were sharp and the tech was new and shiny, but the technology world kept moving and kept evolving and a lot of people…didn’t. Every day I see another post like “AI isn’t really smart, it’s just hype and I don’t like it!” or “I don’t use social media and here’s why!” or “Look at this phone I started using that isn’t a smartphone, I’m so much happier now”, all without realizing that this is just the “I don’t use the internet, it’s dangerous! My kids aren’t allowed to use it either!” or “I don’t need a cellphone, people can wait to call me when I’m home!” or “Why would I send a text message when I can just call?” of our time. People age and get set in their ways, and in my opinion in this rapidly evolving world of technology, it’s something that has to be actively avoided or we’ll get left behind.
- thefaux 1y ago
  Or perhaps people mature, take stock in what actually matters to them rather than what is being forced onto them by the economy. If being left behind means I have real relationships with real humans in the real world, I'm good with that.
  - rzz3 1y ago
    Sure, but we were _right_ back then on the bleeding edge of technology, whereas our parents simply didn’t get it. They were closed off to new ideas and the rapidly changing world. Or were they more mature, and the internet and texting and cellphones were bad ideas?
- mattgreenrocks 1y ago
  Being a hacker was never about unquestioningly lapping up every new thing that was pushed out. It's clear we've pretty much completely lost the spirit of the hacker ethos to Silicon Valley.
- legacynl 1y ago
  I think it's a bit much to criticize being contrarian, when being a conformist is basically the same thing. A conformist does exactly what the public does, and a contrarian does exactly what the public doesn't do. Either way the public decides. If you independently decide that you don't like social media, then that's not being a contrarian. Just as independently deciding that you do want to engage in social media doesn't make you a conformist.
shortn 1y ago
"Although the blog will be the main home for all my stuff (you can follow it via RSS and I think you should, because RSS is possibly the best and purest tech we still have)" This. I watch youtube through my RSS feed. The videos actually loads instantly, without their BS loading times if you load it on their page (in FF with adblock). I can set up rules in my RSS feed to filter out previews/trailers from channels I follow. I can sort my YT channels into categories (music, sports, etc). It's actually usable, and the controls are in my hand. More people needs to use RSS feeds. Don't let algorithms dictate your life. Youtube engineers are the worst.
- gh0stcat 1y ago
  Hey, if you’re someone just getting into rss feeds, can you point me to a good guide to get started with a setup like yours?
  - burkaman 1y ago
    If you're willing to pay a little, I have used https://bazqux.com/ https://bazqux.com/ for many years and it has every feature I've ever needed built in. You can set up everything the parent comment mentioned in a few minutes.
    - rrgok 1y ago
      This almost sold me: read comments. Does it support Reddit and HN comments?
      - burkaman 1y ago
        It does support Reddit comments. HN feeds are provided by a third party (https://github.com/hnrss/hnrss https://github.com/hnrss/hnrss) which doesn't provide comments on posts, but you could request or implement that feature if you wanted to.
    - gh0stcat 1y ago
      Thanks, will check it out!
TheBozzCL 1y ago
Getting rid of most social media has been one of the best things I have ever done. I didn’t just delete my accounts, I also blocked the sites so I can’t visit them. The best one to delete was definitely reddit. It’s too easy to doomscroll. It’s such a time sink, and being hyper-aware of everything that’s going on nowadays just made me anxious all the time. HN hasn’t proven to be much of an issue for me. I guess it’s just less active, so I run out of new content faster whenever I visit.
- Drew_ 1y ago
  I did the same, but I'm still holding on to Reddit with many restrictions: - No mobile apps - 10 min/day time limit on web - Only browse 6 subreddits individually - Filtering all posts below a certain karma level (depending on the subreddit) - Collapsing all comments by default This has completely changed my relationship with the platform for the better. I would quit it entirely, but unfortunately it's the best news source for a few of my hobbies.
  - abhinavk 1y ago
    subreddits also have a RSS feed. That helps when you just want stories and links.
cwoolfe 1y ago
Welcome to the club! https://chriswoolfe.wordpress.com/2020/12/12/why-ive-left-facebook/ https://chriswoolfe.wordpress.com/2020/12/12/why-ive-left-fa...
dklsgnjdreghri 1y ago
good decision
noir_lord 1y ago
I never started with social media (I guess you can count reddit/HN) but beyond that - nope. This isn't a "I'm so smart I saw the writing on the wall" thing it's entirely that I'm not hugely social anyway and social media is a weak reflection of been actually social. Same with doom scrolling, it just doesn't seem to take with me.
swah 1y ago
I understand this place (HN) is not considered "social media" by most guys who leave social media? For me the (bad) usage patterns are very similar between here and there.
- georgeecollins 1y ago
  I definitely doom scroll hacker news and feel bad when I lose karma. But on the plus side I only engage with it when I choose to and its easy to set aside. I read things and I think: "I have an experience I want to relate!" But I am trying to take a breath more and realize people aren't really that interested in my opinion. I am trying to be at peace with that in general.
techterrier 1y ago
I binned off my instagram, it made my hobby (wildlife photography) feel like a job. Made my own site instead: https://photos.dombarker.co.uk/ https://photos.dombarker.co.uk/ Gets about 1 visit a week from google. And thats ok.
- ekunazanu 1y ago
  I don't know if it's the colours or the composition (or both), but some of the pictures look absolutely gorgeous
  - techterrier 1y ago
    that's very kind thank you :)
- fleebee 1y ago
  These are beautiful photos. Would you consider adding an RSS feed to your website to help people keep up with it?
  - techterrier 1y ago
    done! https://photos.dombarker.co.uk/rss https://photos.dombarker.co.uk/rss
    - fleebee 1y ago
      Thank you!
- damnitpeter 1y ago
  I just wanted to say that these are some seriously great photos!
  - techterrier 1y ago
    thats very kind, thanks!
paxys 1y ago
The only real sign that you're free from social media is that you don't have the compulsion to write long posts and tell internet strangers all about it. Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Reddit, Substack, Hacker News...it's all the same. If you want to be free be truly free.
- legacynl 1y ago
  snarky comment, but not applicable. She is a writer, writing stuff for others to read is her goal.
tombert 1y ago
I just got declined for a job yesterday because I had a post on my blog talking about my history with major depressive disorder and medication to address that. That's not just a cope on my end, they actually said that. I don't think I'm ambitious enough to try and sue them for it, I might report to some department in NYC for it though. But I think I learned that being candid about yourself on the internet is a mistake. I have no idea why the fuck it would be a good idea to be upfront about my mental health history; who the hell knows how many jobs I've been declined for where they were smart enough to not say that that's why they were declining me. I had already deleted most of my social media, the only ones I use regularly are Hacker News and the aforementioned blog [1], and I think I should probably just stop mentioning anything that isn't purely technical on either of them. [1] Not really social media, but it is a public-facing thing with my name on it.
- jedimastert 1y ago
  You're probably looking for the New York State department of Labor https://portal.311.nyc.gov/article/?kanumber=KA-02488 https://portal.311.nyc.gov/article/?kanumber=KA-02488
  - tombert 1y ago
    Yeah that's the one I was looking at. I'm not sure if I want to do it, because this is a relatively small company, it would be very clearly me who reported them, and the leader of this company is sort of a known sociopath who would probably not be above blackballing me and making it very hard for me to be employed. It's a little depressing, because I wrote that blog post so that I people searching for how certain medications affect them could know what they were in for, I didn't think it would be weaponized against me, but I guess that was a little naive on my end.
    - jedimastert 1y ago
      "Blackmail" you how? It's sort of already "public" as it is. I would highly recommend reporting them anyways, but they choice is yours
alexpotato 1y ago
In defense of social media, going to share a typical conversation I have with some younger (mid 20s) folks that I mentor: Me: "Do you use social media?" Them: "NO! Social media is so toxic!" Me: "You mentioned earlier that you are trying to get a job in X field, correct?" Them: "Yes, that's true" Me: "Have you found the relevant sub-Reddit, part of Twitter etc where people in that field hang out and/or share ideas?" Them: "Well, no." Me: "So how about this: first find the online place where those people hang out. Second, why don't you write up a blog post or summary of something you've done in the field and post it there. If you haven't done something IN the field, then maybe talk about how you learned about the field or what you find interesting about it etc. Then post that in the sub-Reddit etc." <few weeks go by> Them: "I followed your advice and someone from a firm in the field I'm interested saw it, read it, commented on it and reached about having a conversation." Me: "Excellent! I always say that the lifetime marginal benefit of going from zero to one social media post about you describing/writing about your preferred industry is ENORMOUS" (We usually move on to another topic with the mentee after this) Prior to social media, the only way you could do this was to do one of the following: - go to college in that field - hangout, physically, where the folks you wanted to interact with were - physically send letters to people with your article/summary idea - etc I feel like a lot of folks forget this and are blinded by the downsides of social media (which, to be fair, there are many)
- SkipperCat 1y ago
  What you describe is the best of what social media can be. Real people connecting, interacting with each other and helping folks. Sadly, a lot of social media is not this. Its people and bots posting content designed to inflame, generate hate and make people feel bad about themselves by comparing their own lives to unattainable goals (eg: Instagram). Add to this the addictive way Social Media engineers their sites to keep people swiping rather than interacting with real people and you have a product which may be more net negative than positive. I wish there were more instances of Social Media operating in the way you describe. That was the dream...
- thewebguyd 1y ago
  > - hangout, physically, where the folks you wanted to interact with were There's also nothing wrong with this! The more and more interactions we move online, the more purely transactional they become and we miss out on a lot of connection with our fellow humans, which have a multitude of benefits other than just professional networking. The other problem with social media is your choice is removed from you. I run a photography business as a side hustle, and without social media, it would have never gotten off the ground and if I want it to continue I'm required to basically not only be good at the photography aspect, but to be good at social media and having that social media persona. It's draining, and extremely damaging for one's mental health and if you run a small business chances are you just don't have a choice, you have to do it or you don't get to exist (up to a certain point until word of mouth can carry you, but even then not having a social media presence is a red flag for many). Social media itself doesn't need to be bad, or harmful, but that would require getting rid of algorithmic feeds, and to stop rewarding engagement, which will solve the "influencer" problem. I'd also go as far to say that social media shouldn't be the end game, but a tool that eventually leads to a real, physical connection/in person event. Social media should augment those communities, but not be the entirety of the community.
mrtksn 1y ago
I want the old internet back, considering that history is cyclical I have high hopes that it will come back. However I subscribe to the idea that history doesn't repeat itself but rhymes so I expect it to be amazing again in a slightly different form. Currently its infestation of for-profit content that got even worse with generative AI and curated through for-profit algorithms that drain our life for attention. However, if you pay close attention to the non-advertiser friendly content and content that AI refuses to generate(which is mostly extremist left and right BS), you will see that there's a sustainable path for content that is not discovered and created the way it is now. Yes, currently the only organic content is the extremist content. Yes, those de-platformed people actually didn't go away. They create authentic high quality Bull Shit, have audience that care and they are doing just fine. Which makes me believe that there must be a way for non-crazy, non-racist, non-extremist people for once again have authentic high quality content. Interestingly, when Erdogan of Turkey cornered the mainstream media and deplatformed the non-complying journalists those journalists also adopted new ways. For many years, the advertisement on those channels were laughing stock. It was mostly hair removal cream and ideology oriented books but they survived anyway and the Erdogan acquired media lost steam as it wasn't authentic anymore and those small channels and social media platforms became mainstream. To the point that he is now once again trying to destroy them as his media is no good to push his narrative. So yes, content is king and nature finds its way.
- azemetre 1y ago
  The old internet has never left, it's just the vast majority of people went to the corporatized internet instead. You can still find small communities of a few dozen or hundred people posting on forums that aren't reddit or facebook. You aren't going to find them because Google does not care about discovery they care about ads. Webrings are one trick to find your people, but it's hard and most webrings don't point to "gathering spots."
  - jjulius 1y ago
    >You aren't going to find them because Google does not care about discovery they care about ads. I frequently post to two very small, hobby-specific phpBB forums with old-internet-style communities that I found by googling the hobby. The forums themselves were listed at the top of Google's results when looking for the broader hobby, and I regularly find specific posts in Google results when searching for very specific subject matter.
DudeOpotomus 1y ago
It's 2025 and McDonald's is still the #1 most popular restaurant in the whole world. Social Media is fast food. The masses will consume it to their death... The rest of the population is bifurcating. The only people who will remain on Social Media will be poor, uneducated and the stupid. Not that different than the people who eat fast food, often.
stride 1y ago
I like the irony of making a very public blog/social media post about not using social media.
8200_unit 1y ago
If the author was really done with social media they would delete their accounts. Since the accounts are not deleted the door is still open. I deleted my accounts over 5 years ago and don't miss anything. In fact I think it has strengthened my connections with friends pushing me to text and call more people. The only regret I have is as a security researcher I lose out on some good OSINT data. There are ways around it but the walled gardens are quite secure and require ID to enter.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
freeopinion 1y ago
I think posting a note about your graduation so that all your friends and family can read a single note is a great use of social media. Reading about your niece's archery trophy is social media. You can do this through email. But a personal website is a bit more interesting and preserves some privacy for the audience. Hosting your own site is beyond the abilities of most people, so it makes sense to have some easy hosting solution. A social media service is a fantastic idea. Doom scrolling through Tiktok is not social. Most people do not use "social media" services strictly as social media services. They use them as news services, music streaming services, etc. And most "social media" services encourage this and make it difficult to use their sites for social media. A decent social media provider, like a decent email provider or hosting provider would have to charge money for their service. I don't know how many people would want such a service nor how many people would be willing to pay for it.
ReaperCub 1y ago
> I'm not a natural on camera and I don't have that talent for talking effortlessly and engagingly to a lens when alone in a room that successful social media personalities need. I was forcing it all the time, making myself record multiple takes and doing things again and again until they looked "natural" (a highly unnatural behaviour). My video editing skills are basic, so turning out regular videos took me a long time. They would have done better and would have resented it less if they had just owned it and not worried as much. They would have become more comfortable on camera as a result. You first attempts at this are going to be rubbish anyway. So it better to just put stuff out there and iterate. All the big mistakes have been made by others and if you avoid those you will be fine. When I first started doing YouTube vids. I was determined I should be like some big coding channel. I didn't have the video editing skills, nor really knew enough OBS to do it effectively. So I was stressing about it. My videos did pretty decently (I had less than 50 subs and I had 1200 views on one of my videos). Now I am doing as if it is a hobby that I will hopefully turn into something more and I am enjoying it a lot more. I get decent engagement / views for my channel considering the size (200-1000 views per vid) when you have less than 500 subs is decent IMO. As I get better with the OBS/Kdenlive/Resolve I am sure I will have more fun editing.
sm00thbr41n 1y ago
who. gives. a. shit. > If all of this — a non-famous writer with a podcast deciding she's replacing Instagram with blogging — feels too inconsequential to write 4,500 words about, then you're not alone. I think so too, but I also couldn't not write this. Crazy that she gets it but doesn't get it at the same time.
- bonoboTP 1y ago
  It's a trend. Digital detox also.
lbrito 1y ago
>One evening, as I made my husband walk our dog past the same scenic view multiple times so that I could get the best shot of it for a video, I experienced a sudden wave of revulsion for myself and what I was doing. There's a beach in Northeastern Brazil called Maragogi. The water is calm and warm, and you can easily see schools of fish passing through your legs in many points. "Brazilian Caribbean" is its moniker, but if you ask me, the Caribbean should be called the "Central American Maragogi". Anyway, I rented a small apartment there for a while, and this one morning I observed this couple acting quite strangely. The young lady was repeating some movements -- none of them naughty. She was going in and out of the sea, splashing theatrically through the surf. Then I noticed the man of the couple: he was chasing after her maybe 4 or 5m away, holding and looking at the phone all the time. I went about my morning, walked a bunch, enjoyed the water, and started back after a couple of hours - the Sun gets dangerously strong around noon. The couple was still at the same spot, tirelessly repeating the same sad, pathetic choreography, again and again. I still can't understand those people. What a miserable existence we've built for ourselves.
- drcongo 1y ago
  I saw a lot of this exact behaviour in Ibiza recently, I will never understand it. I use the iOS photos widget to always have a photo from my camera roll on my home screen, and the little moment of joy I get from that is usually the memory of the event depicted. What future joy is going to come from a photo popping into your day of that time you spent 2 hours standing in front of something doing very slightly different poses while your long-suffering friend or partner was forced to take photos of each and every one of them?
kmarc 1y ago
For those who don't even open TFA: she is a creator, not a consumer in social media, and she only started two years ago. It's a long ass post about how fake those people are and how fake you yourself become once you start creating that content. Wishing the best of luck for the journey. This was a refreshing exception among all those "enough, I quit social media". OTOH, here I am still surprised how many people find it fulfilling to either be a performing monkey in this palm-sized vertical cage, or the opposite, why is it so fulfilling to watch those monkeys hours long, daily. "monkey" sounds harsh, I know, but in reality, these performers are barely more than just copying, mirroring other ones, with possibly more followers. What a time to be alive in.
- dentemple 1y ago
  At the very least, one should be a regular user of a platform prior to marketing on that platform. Every platform has nuance to it, and if you don't understand that nuance, then you're better off paying someone else to do it on your behalf. The OP was never going to succeed in her efforts there.
  - ozim 1y ago
    That’s tricky part to understand. On one hand it seems she already has audience so she should have positive traction. On the other hand it seems like she started from 0 on the platforms and expected to be already a star “because I am an author”. Then she wanted to hack away with tricks like “posting daily” attracting people who liked her “dog posts” - because she didn’t have better stuff to post. I read that post yesterday and it started sinking in. She did everything wrong. Her audience as she mentioned wasn’t transferable to socials so she really was starting there from scratch. Posting your funny dog pictures and your daily routine will not make you stand out - everyone does that. Being “an author” also doesn’t make much of a difference when I can follow J.K Rowling and watch her funny dog pictures or laugh at her making inappropriate comments. Edit: I also checked just now what was her book. That’s definitely not aligning with lifestyle influencing with happy dogs or husband in perfect golden hour video.
- wredcoll 1y ago
viccis 1y ago
Part of the problem is that most of these social media platforms have abandoned the "social media" paradigm entirely (which is to say, a platform that lets you interact and stay in touch with people you know via the internet) and shifted to an enshittified attention economy monster that turns users into content producers and content consumers, not always of content that has anything to do with socializing. It seems like this author is effectively struggling with marketing in the attention economy. It sucks, but honestly this just sounds like the same challenge that marketing has been grappling with for ages.
markerz 1y ago
There’s an easier way to promote on social media without becoming a life consuming personal brand. Get yourself on those accounts that curate content. Get your song featured on curated Spotify lists or Instagram/TikTok accounts that review books of a specific genre, or get a guest spot on a podcast about your topic. This is like the old way of marketing. In the old days, you’d apply to talk at writing conventions, table, do book tours at stores, go to relevant events locally, and partner with libraries locally. To follow the song analogy, musicians used to send songs to DJs and radio hosts. Maybe your at a college radio level, or local broadcasting. Find your stations, build up your reputation. In the end of the day, people have found their networks and communities. You should try to enter them and be a part of those communities rather than build one up for yourself. The author has this insite when she describes most of her following is through some form of word of mouth. This social media era is the same, except some of the word of mouth is direct (DMs, IRL conversations) and others are through communities. In an era of everything being algorithmically served to you, I’m impressed by how often personal recommendations weigh far heavier for people. A good example I’ve seen is restaurants. Sure, I might Google or Yelp, but if someone I know has similar taste recommends a place, I’ll give it a shot. It doesn’t need to be someone I know IRL or virtual, it’s just a person who shares the same interests. I think this works well if you’re trying to promote something real, like what this author is doing. I have no solution for personal content.
panzagl 1y ago
She has a blog, podcast, and email newsletter- is she really not using social media?
- ReaperCub 1y ago
  Most people don't consider those as social media.
simpaticoder 1y ago
I've often wondered if you can't have your cake and eat it too by treating social media as write-only. If you just post, but don't read comments, demonetize, don't track performance, you break the cycle of feedback and measurement that shapes inauthentic behavior. This doesn't mean you take NO feedback, because you can always offer an intentionally "high-friction" means of contacting you (I personally like the idea of a time-limited email address that is the answer to a riddle presented in the content. Or a PO Box). It's deeply uncertain, even unlikely, that this will work because users crave engagement, feeling like their involved, and this "shape" of social media is more akin to legacy TV and print media which is "fire and forget". But still, I think it's an experiment worth doing.
- techterrier 1y ago
  of course you can, theres lots of healthy ways of engaging with and using social media... its just that for whatever reason, we've invested the lives of many of our best minds into pulling you into the unhealthy ways, as they make the line go up.
  - simpaticoder 1y ago
    I suppose my question was less about whether or not one can do the experiment, and more about whether or not anyone has done it and whether it was successful. I could see it going either way.
- iluvlawyering 1y ago
  Been doing this for almost a decade. Drive-by social media. My pages are all public too. Check iluvlawyering on Instagram and you'll see hundreds of posts without any responses. There's even a post that I made as a channel marker of sorts (paraphrasing: click on this and tap on that, all day long its click, click, clack, feel free to click on this there's no tapping back. Needless to say I haven't scrolled or engaged with anything on any of my own feeds in years. It's also important not to curate or review what you've already posted. That was an issue for the first couple years but it's all smooth sailing now.
- immibis 1y ago
coffeecoders 1y ago
We as engineers did this and we should fix this! Personal plug: https://nabraj.com/blog/swipe-scroll-repeat-addiction/ https://nabraj.com/blog/swipe-scroll-repeat-addiction/
zer0zzz 1y ago
These kinds of posts are so played out
ViktorRay 1y ago
Social media was never a wholly cosy or useful place for me, although I was utterly addicted to it for a number of years because "being a journalist" in the 2010s felt synonymous with "being on social media all the time". Wait what? Is this true? Can anyone familiar with the journalism field chime in here? Because if this is true then it would explain the general deterioration of the media environment we live in. Hell sometimes I listen to NPR while driving and I here the jounralists talk about random reddit comments and I feel perturbed that browsing reddit would be considered journalism. But being on social media all the time is considered journalism apparently?
zkmon 1y ago
You wrote a long blog post. Shows that you are not done yet. Social media is about craving for attention and spending your attention. That's not bad. Getting attention gives a purpose for what you do. Giving attention gives you new exposures. New exposures cause aging, like the scales in the wood. New attention you get, gives you existence. The idea is to grow bigger in existence without much aging.
doka_smoka 1y ago
I have abstained from most social media since 2012, to include Linkedin. I enjoy that my friendships and social connections feel satisfying but more importantly, consensual. The decision has been to my detriment in some ways, but affirming in others - for instance, I recorded an album for my metal project. It has 200 listens on Bandcamp. Could I have more ears if I blasted shit out over X or intentionally marketed myself and the project? Of course. But do I care to? No. Social media broke its promise by degenerating into a billboard. I have no interest in contributing to that beast.
alganet 1y ago
Ok, good point. Good luck with the book.
mattgreenrocks 1y ago
Social media's been coasting on unearned legitimacy since at least 2012 or so. Remember the countless thinkpieces about the wisdom of crowds? Conceivably, social media crowds could somehow solve all sorts of really hard problems because in the mass of people conversing we'd be able to amplify voices who weren't being heard and get harder problems solved. The truth of it is social media is a massively multiplayer video game where the goal is to build a following through posts, replies, and various social metrics. This reframing situates it correctly for me: should I play video games for 4 hours straight everyday? Maybe not if I want to feel balanced as an individual. Should I let randos from a video game tell me I should be putting more time in? Absolutely not: they are still randos, regardless of how many Internet Points they have. Do I want their level of brainrot? No, thus I should I always be mindful of the effects on me. It also makes exceedingly clear that social media should never be confused with whatever your quality work is that needs to get done. It is not a substitute for actually doing things. It offers a pale shadow of communication, friendship, and action. People should want more than the lousy facsimiles that it provides.
singpolyma3 1y ago
Oops a blog is social media
drcongo 1y ago
It's always weird when two worlds collide - I listen to Caroline's podcast "Shedunnit", a lovely warm hug of a show about the golden age of detective fiction, so I was a bit surprised to see her on HN. I highly recommend the podcast - it's not a subject I have a great deal of interest in, I just love listening to people talk about a niche that they're deeply interested in, and Caroline's love for the subject matter is contagious.
wonder_er 1y ago
I started blogging in 2012, have been going pretty consistently since then. I currently 'go hard' on tiktok, because I've recently been collecting tons of footage of mobility networks via drone and 360 camera (mostly while I ride my scooter/small motorcycle around) the tiktok editor is pretty good for that purpose, and then I bring some clips back to my blog. For instance, https://josh.works/traffic-bean https://josh.works/traffic-bean has text, links to some substacks I wrote, a youtube video embed (drone footage) and tiktok embeds (insta360 footage). It does the trick. But everything that isn't on my website I count as ephemeral, discard, creative detritus that I create lots of so I can occasionally get the good bits. I love having my website. I can write whatever I want. I can write about grief, or supremacy, or ruby, or american road networks, and I have a list of subscribers (~300) via email that I can talk to directly. I love to see other people's blogs. It's so much more interesting to me than an instagram or tik tok or whatever. :)
ricardo81 1y ago
There may be already existent threads covering my thoughts Big tech algorithms are filled with absolute dog shit. What were previously information discovery algorithms have been replaced by, basically dog shit. I have gave up on Facebook, Twitter, and most recently LinkedIn as a millennial. All I see is fantastical nonsense and spam. The rate it's going, if you want to reach someone over 40 in the UK, try Ceefax.
game_the0ry 1y ago
I have a hypothesis - media production [1] will gradually shift from social medial platforms to individualized (decentralized) platforms [2]. I think there are a lot of reasons for this trend: * People are becoming increasing distrustful of platforms and there owners. * The platform algos push a lot of noise and inflammatory content for engagement, something that users are getting fatigue from. * On the creator side, the professional producers of social media will find it increasingly difficult to monetize from their platforms. In fact, I think the platforms will eventually realize how much power they have over their popular creators and charge the creators in order to have full access to their audiences. * Additionally on the creator side, they can be banned at any moment with little or no recourse. Imagine being a professional creator on instagram, and one day you are banned for no reason. You lose total access to your following. So I think the attention will slowly shift away from the platforms, which increasingly just serve as a parasitic middle men, back to creators + their followers (newsletters, blogs, private chat, websites with owned domains, etc). [1] Whatever people tend to post on social media, whether its images, text, audio, or video. [2] Blogs, websites, email, owned domains, etc.
photon_garden 1y ago
My rule for social media is “don’t feed the sirens.” Like Caroline, there are many things I’d rather do than donate my time to help Mark Zuckerberg sell ads. This is why, for example, I don’t post my art on social media.
OldfieldFund 1y ago
"I still want to be in touch with those who are interested in my work. I've spent most of 2025 so far working out what that might look like." I don't understand how you can get eyes on your blog without social media, and with how Google works nowadays, unless you are a celebrity.
- chistev 1y ago
  I don't understand it either. Perhaps word of mouth? Your friends and work colleagues read your blog and share the ones they love to their own friends, etc. I don't know.
ujkiolp 1y ago
the only blogs i’ve found worth reading are the ones that have something to say other than just “why i have a blog”
voshond 1y ago
I think the author was a bit confused on what „do social media“ means. This, like any other promotional marketing channel, lives based on building an audience that comes for that value OR is genuinely interested in your content. Just creating some random videos about god knows what without any overarching context or value (entertainment) provided, leaves the audience clueless about what this channel means. It’s like your uncle uploading random videos without any sort of narrative and each video being completely random. Doing „social media“ probably means to either build a following by providing content that involves book or are around the topic books, that regardless of interest in the current book in question, will make the audience come back because they are getting some kind of value and/or entertainment. Posting videos about a book and then next about a husband walking the dog does not really spark an interest to come back for more (unless I am personally interested to support a particular creator (which these followers also did)). Unfortunately just trying to build a social media presence to promote a book is naive. The advice to „do social media“ is too broad. But social media IS a powerful channel to reach audiences, just not without either already owning a channel that covers the subject matter on a regular basis to attract the audience or without the willingness to spend money. Placing advertisements or striking deals with book related channels would probably be more effective.

301 points by anarbadalov 1y ago

Another step toward the ultimate wisdom which is: who cares? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41115911 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41115911

Leo-thorne 1y ago

I’ve been using social media less and less over the past few years. Especially short videos, they just make my brain feel foggy. At first I thought it was just distracting but later I realized it was affecting my mood and focus. Now I mostly use it to post photos and write more on my own blog, mainly for people I know. There is less interaction but it feels a lot more peaceful.

chistev 1y ago

Wrote something related on my blog - https://www.rxjourney.net/decoupling-from-social-media https://www.rxjourney.net/decoupling-from-social-media

Gud 1y ago

Me too. Let’s hope the micro net can survive. I hope for a curated, personal internet Link in my profile

jmclnx 1y ago

I even went further, I moved my WEB page to gopher and gemini, the real gemini :)

metabagel 1y ago

"Being a social media star is a skillset completely distinct from being someone who writes books — they may overlap occasionally, but it's not the norm." Absolutely

raincole 1y ago
I was about to comment on how much I agree with this quote. Then I realized that pretending to be witty on HN is a skillset that completely distinct from being someone who writes software as well.
- legacynl 1y ago
  quod erat demonstrandum
duxup 1y ago
Same with coding, pretty much everything. I've met some folks, even taken classes from some people who are involved with some important frameworks and so on, all great experiences ... and yet their social media posts about coding are just pithy garbage, even when they try to say something important. At times the profession and social media posts straight up seem at odds where I think "I get why this limited number of words plays well on social media, but it's not correct... and I think it even indicted the opposite of what the words originally meant." Social media doesn't really make for a good communication channel for anything except social media.

anarbadalov 1y ago

As I just wrote to the author of this piece (who also happens to send out one of the best weekly roundups of weird and wonderful articles I get), her experience captures what so many authors I’ve worked with over the years in publishing have struggled with. When i can, i try to disabuse them of the idea that social media is somehow a reliable or necessary tool for promoting a book. As Caroline writes, if you already have a platform and it comes naturally to you, great, but I’ve personally never seen an author join social media in order to promote a book and actually succeed. And that’s before you even get to the exploitative dynamics she lays out so clearly here (aptly described as a pyramid scheme). Anyway, it’s all articulated beautifully, and I wish every author, especially those just starting to consider it, could read this and know there’s another way.

zeta0134 1y ago
I'm starting to sloooowly build up an audience as I work on my game project, and I can already tell I do not at all have the necessary drive to build that audience as large as it needs to be for the game to "go viral" based on that alone, no matter how good it is. No, I think the necessary evil will be actual marketing, possibly by reaching out to other streamers and whatnot that DO have those followings and seeing if I can spark their interest in the project. I know I don't have the mental energy to keep it up myself, especially not solo. I'll focus on what I'm good at: making the best game that I can, the sort of thing I'd love to play. The rest will have to be up to the experts in their field, which I am not.

vouaobrasil 1y ago

Same thing with LinkedIn for me specifically. I heard that it could be a great way to get a job. But then I tried it, was inundated with AI slop, and contacted by recruiters from companies that sounded dreadfully boring. And when it came to nearly 100% of the people I encountered there who were actually active, I'd rather freeze to death than work with them.

0xbadcafebee 1y ago
Use it to keep in contact with peers from previous jobs. When they see you're looking they'll refer you internally, and that is 1000% more likely to land a job than submitting applications cold.
- vouaobrasil 1y ago
  No thanks, I'd rather not use it at all. If people can't be bothered to keep in touch via email or something less disgusting than LinkedIn, I'm not interested in them anyway.
Aurornis 1y ago
The common way to use LinkedIn is to create a profile, keep it updated, and then ignore the platform until you need to use the job search function. The majority of people on LinkedIn aren't posting and interacting with things all day. To be honest, most people I know consider being highly active (posting) on LinkedIn to be a potential warning sign for a hire, because it's associated with people who will spend more time hustling on LinkedIn for their next job than working for your company.
- vouaobrasil 1y ago
  > The common way to use LinkedIn is to create a profile, keep it updated, and then ignore the platform until you need to use the job search function. Personally, I've had better luck finding jobs in other ways (searching companies websites, using more old-school platforms like Indeed), compared to LinkedIn.
- 1y ago

teekert 1y ago

Yesterday I got a mail from Facebook: "*Woman_I_have_known mentioned you on Facebook". Haven't used FB in years, mail looks legit, I get kinda curious. I tap it, and am immediately logged in, in DDG browser (which has 0 cookies when closing)! To top it off, she didn't mention me, she mentioned some #tag on some stupid lottery for a van. It's so disrespectful. So dirty. I know they don't give a * about me, but do they have to put it on so thick?

AndriyKunitsyn 1y ago
A mention without a mention - I get that, but why do you think it's dirty to skip the log in?
- compiler-guy 1y ago
  If they had forwarded that mail to someone else--"Hey look! Someone mentioned me on facebook!"--then that second person could have logged into the first person's account with a single tap. It's scummy and terribly insecure to pass around someone else's credentials via email.
  - maerch 1y ago
    That was my first thought. This can go downhill pretty quickly. Nobody suspects that you expose your account with a link to a mention.
- jmathai 1y ago
  Look at the context of the email he received. It's a lie to get him onto the site and to start scrolling. In that context, skipping the login is pretty dirty.
- ivanmontillam 1y ago
  because though we know BigCo know too much about us nore than ourselves, revealling that ugly fact so frontally is tasteless.
duxup 1y ago

stego-tech 1y ago

Between the fight over AI, shifting geopolitics reigniting old conflicts, an overly-centralized technology industry, a lack of meaningful innovation from a consumer perspective, and the immense precarity of modern work in general, it feels like we’re at the start of the end of a cycle. I’m noticing more people taking stock of what’s actually important to them and taking a stand on their values. This is good in the long run, but in the immediate it results in a lot of binary/black-and-white decision-making that results in dustups and conflicts between groups who would normally be allied behind common goals. All of this is to say that I expect we’ll see many, many, many more of these types of posts in the future, as everyone remembers they can choose to shape their engagement with technology, and that naturally includes the right to disconnect from it - not out of any sort of anti-technology position itself, necessarily, but simply from realizing that a specific thing isn’t something they need or are interested in, and that’s okay. Props to the author for being so clear about their engagement with social media, their background, and their thought process. If it encourages more folks to reassess their own relationship with social media (or any technology), I’m all for it.

bigbuppo 1y ago
I know a few people on the internet long enough to have IP assignments that were originally recorded in Jon Postel's notebook. They have always been on the forefront of everything new and exciting on the internet. Today, there's a fairly even split between bluesky, various mastodon instances, and going back and hanging out on IRC. Nobody that has been in the trenches for a few decades wants to touch an algorithmically-curated platform. If there's one thing twitter showed us it's that humanity isn't yet ready for the hive mind. As for me, I am on bluesky, but I limit who I follow to the point that I can mostly take in a whole week of posts in about five minutes. I'm at the age where a few hours of my time is a horrifyingly significant fraction of a percent of my remaining time on this planet. I have better things to do with that time than to squander it being miserable so the world's third richest person can get a little richer and buy another private island.
- atavistically 1y ago
  [dead]

fambalamboni 1y ago

[dead]

billyp-rva 1y ago

> I think the persistent advice to authors to "do social media" is, at best, part of a strategy that can be generously described as throwing everything at the proverbial wall in the hope that something, anything, will stick. It also probably was pretty good advice until ~3 years ago.

tiniuclx 1y ago

I've been trying to use social media to promote my music & mobile app for years, to very little luck. I don't even really like using social media, but it felt "necessary" in order to "make it," even though there is nothing to see for all this effort. Sometimes Facebook et al feel like a complete ghost town, with algorithmic content completely overwhelming any engagement from friends or acquaintances.

bee_rider 1y ago
Social media networks start to suck as soon as your circle of friends graduates college. Mine is mostly one old friend posting about politics (and like, I agree with his politics but the stuff reposted on social media is hit by the dumb-viral filter and becomes unbearable even if you agree with it).

TechDebtDevin 1y ago

Yesterday I woke up, naturally, I started scrolling. The very first video (on Instagram) was an Uber driver getting pulled out of his car, a guy cocking a gun and executing him. I was barely awake and didn't really have time to react. For the rest of the day I couldn't stop thinking about it, had high levels of anxiety for a few hours. I told all my friends I'm switching off for a bit on the socials. Mastodon and signal for a bit. Edit: Just thinking about this happening yesterday puts me into a high state of anxiety.. Its absolutely bllsht these companies can effect us in this way. Second Edit: Its my choice to expose myself knowingly, not entirely blaming meta. And I'm not going to anymore, but this is a more common experience than usual since Zuck got a chain and Tall-T

cantor_S_drug 1y ago
Yudkowski mentioned a nice thought blurb about cancer. 1. More cancer cases being recognized efficiently. 2. More bombardment of cancer cases news through diverse outlets. 3. Social media refreshing our minds with same cancer cases, even 4-5 year old ones. 4. The same news circulating through offline interactions. This gives us insecurity that a particular disease is out of control. I think there was a Lesswrong post about this phenomenon.
- TechDebtDevin 1y ago
  A couple assumptions you're making here I'd disagree with: 1. Yudkowski is ever worth listening to. 2. That this is just some antecdotal experience (the whole world is having), that isn't backed by any scientific merrit. I don't have time in the middle of my work day to go find all that, but we all know this is something measurable. How humans adapt remains to be seen, it seems like a lot of (young) people adapt by shoving the barrel of a gun in their... Maybe they would have done that anyways idk.
hbn 1y ago
> Its absolutely bllsht these companies can effect us in this way. I'd be one of the last people to defend Instagram/Meta/Zuck, but is that really your takeaway from this? Execution videos are absolutely against Instagram's TOS and I'm sure they want it on their platform even less than you. If anything, Instagram's issue is they're too heavy on the robo-censorship. My friend posted a photo of him standing on one leg with a chair in his hands, making a goofy face, with the caption "I'm gonna hit you with this chair!" directed at no one in particular, and it was taken down for, quote: "encouraging violence and leading to risk of physical harm, or a direct threat to public safety." Appeal was rejected too, and the post had to be deleted. This happens because they're trying to moderate against people posting execution videos. One slipped through the cracks seemingly, but it's not like they don't put a lot of effort into preventing that. It's pretty hard to do at Meta's scale where most of the earth's population is using their platforms.

andsoitis 1y ago

welcome to the anti-social club!

cwoolfe 1y ago
yes. the irony is that social media promotes para-socialization to the detriment of actual socialization. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsaeFYGbK2M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsaeFYGbK2M

stickfigure 1y ago

It isn't clear from the title but becomes clear in the second paragraph: She's saying "I'm done trying to use social media for commercial purposes".

compiler-guy 1y ago
She is no longer posting personal content on social media apps either. She will send you stuff via her newsletter though. But that's more than just abandoning it for business reasons.
- rzz3 1y ago
  Is this an email newsletter? I’d never see it.
  - compiler-guy 1y ago
    I think the entire point is that to find out about it, you have to have a much higher level of interest in the topic than someone who would find out about it via algorithm and virality.
- stickfigure 1y ago
  Sure but she's frustrated because she's trying a use case that does not apply to most social media users. You can have a miserable experience in competitive races but it's a bit heavy handed to swear off jogging entirely.

rzz3 1y ago

More and more Hacker News seems to be the contrarians and the “get off my lawn”s when it comes to AI and social media alike. I feel like there was a time in the late 2000s to early 2010s where we were still young and our skills were sharp and the tech was new and shiny, but the technology world kept moving and kept evolving and a lot of people…didn’t. Every day I see another post like “AI isn’t really smart, it’s just hype and I don’t like it!” or “I don’t use social media and here’s why!” or “Look at this phone I started using that isn’t a smartphone, I’m so much happier now”, all without realizing that this is just the “I don’t use the internet, it’s dangerous! My kids aren’t allowed to use it either!” or “I don’t need a cellphone, people can wait to call me when I’m home!” or “Why would I send a text message when I can just call?” of our time. People age and get set in their ways, and in my opinion in this rapidly evolving world of technology, it’s something that has to be actively avoided or we’ll get left behind.

thefaux 1y ago
Or perhaps people mature, take stock in what actually matters to them rather than what is being forced onto them by the economy. If being left behind means I have real relationships with real humans in the real world, I'm good with that.
- rzz3 1y ago
  Sure, but we were _right_ back then on the bleeding edge of technology, whereas our parents simply didn’t get it. They were closed off to new ideas and the rapidly changing world. Or were they more mature, and the internet and texting and cellphones were bad ideas?
mattgreenrocks 1y ago
Being a hacker was never about unquestioningly lapping up every new thing that was pushed out. It's clear we've pretty much completely lost the spirit of the hacker ethos to Silicon Valley.
legacynl 1y ago
I think it's a bit much to criticize being contrarian, when being a conformist is basically the same thing. A conformist does exactly what the public does, and a contrarian does exactly what the public doesn't do. Either way the public decides. If you independently decide that you don't like social media, then that's not being a contrarian. Just as independently deciding that you do want to engage in social media doesn't make you a conformist.

shortn 1y ago

"Although the blog will be the main home for all my stuff (you can follow it via RSS and I think you should, because RSS is possibly the best and purest tech we still have)" This. I watch youtube through my RSS feed. The videos actually loads instantly, without their BS loading times if you load it on their page (in FF with adblock). I can set up rules in my RSS feed to filter out previews/trailers from channels I follow. I can sort my YT channels into categories (music, sports, etc). It's actually usable, and the controls are in my hand. More people needs to use RSS feeds. Don't let algorithms dictate your life. Youtube engineers are the worst.

gh0stcat 1y ago
Hey, if you’re someone just getting into rss feeds, can you point me to a good guide to get started with a setup like yours?
- burkaman 1y ago
  If you're willing to pay a little, I have used https://bazqux.com/ https://bazqux.com/ for many years and it has every feature I've ever needed built in. You can set up everything the parent comment mentioned in a few minutes.
  - rrgok 1y ago
    This almost sold me: read comments. Does it support Reddit and HN comments?
    - burkaman 1y ago
      It does support Reddit comments. HN feeds are provided by a third party (https://github.com/hnrss/hnrss https://github.com/hnrss/hnrss) which doesn't provide comments on posts, but you could request or implement that feature if you wanted to.
  - gh0stcat 1y ago
    Thanks, will check it out!

TheBozzCL 1y ago

Getting rid of most social media has been one of the best things I have ever done. I didn’t just delete my accounts, I also blocked the sites so I can’t visit them. The best one to delete was definitely reddit. It’s too easy to doomscroll. It’s such a time sink, and being hyper-aware of everything that’s going on nowadays just made me anxious all the time. HN hasn’t proven to be much of an issue for me. I guess it’s just less active, so I run out of new content faster whenever I visit.

Drew_ 1y ago
I did the same, but I'm still holding on to Reddit with many restrictions: - No mobile apps - 10 min/day time limit on web - Only browse 6 subreddits individually - Filtering all posts below a certain karma level (depending on the subreddit) - Collapsing all comments by default This has completely changed my relationship with the platform for the better. I would quit it entirely, but unfortunately it's the best news source for a few of my hobbies.
- abhinavk 1y ago
  subreddits also have a RSS feed. That helps when you just want stories and links.

cwoolfe 1y ago

Welcome to the club! https://chriswoolfe.wordpress.com/2020/12/12/why-ive-left-facebook/ https://chriswoolfe.wordpress.com/2020/12/12/why-ive-left-fa...

dklsgnjdreghri 1y ago

good decision

noir_lord 1y ago

I never started with social media (I guess you can count reddit/HN) but beyond that - nope. This isn't a "I'm so smart I saw the writing on the wall" thing it's entirely that I'm not hugely social anyway and social media is a weak reflection of been actually social. Same with doom scrolling, it just doesn't seem to take with me.

swah 1y ago

I understand this place (HN) is not considered "social media" by most guys who leave social media? For me the (bad) usage patterns are very similar between here and there.

georgeecollins 1y ago
I definitely doom scroll hacker news and feel bad when I lose karma. But on the plus side I only engage with it when I choose to and its easy to set aside. I read things and I think: "I have an experience I want to relate!" But I am trying to take a breath more and realize people aren't really that interested in my opinion. I am trying to be at peace with that in general.

techterrier 1y ago

I binned off my instagram, it made my hobby (wildlife photography) feel like a job. Made my own site instead: https://photos.dombarker.co.uk/ https://photos.dombarker.co.uk/ Gets about 1 visit a week from google. And thats ok.

ekunazanu 1y ago
I don't know if it's the colours or the composition (or both), but some of the pictures look absolutely gorgeous
- techterrier 1y ago
  that's very kind thank you :)
fleebee 1y ago
These are beautiful photos. Would you consider adding an RSS feed to your website to help people keep up with it?
- techterrier 1y ago
  done! https://photos.dombarker.co.uk/rss https://photos.dombarker.co.uk/rss
  - fleebee 1y ago
    Thank you!
damnitpeter 1y ago
I just wanted to say that these are some seriously great photos!
- techterrier 1y ago
  thats very kind, thanks!

paxys 1y ago

The only real sign that you're free from social media is that you don't have the compulsion to write long posts and tell internet strangers all about it. Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Reddit, Substack, Hacker News...it's all the same. If you want to be free be truly free.

legacynl 1y ago
snarky comment, but not applicable. She is a writer, writing stuff for others to read is her goal.

tombert 1y ago

I just got declined for a job yesterday because I had a post on my blog talking about my history with major depressive disorder and medication to address that. That's not just a cope on my end, they actually said that. I don't think I'm ambitious enough to try and sue them for it, I might report to some department in NYC for it though. But I think I learned that being candid about yourself on the internet is a mistake. I have no idea why the fuck it would be a good idea to be upfront about my mental health history; who the hell knows how many jobs I've been declined for where they were smart enough to not say that that's why they were declining me. I had already deleted most of my social media, the only ones I use regularly are Hacker News and the aforementioned blog [1], and I think I should probably just stop mentioning anything that isn't purely technical on either of them. [1] Not really social media, but it is a public-facing thing with my name on it.

jedimastert 1y ago
You're probably looking for the New York State department of Labor https://portal.311.nyc.gov/article/?kanumber=KA-02488 https://portal.311.nyc.gov/article/?kanumber=KA-02488
- tombert 1y ago
  Yeah that's the one I was looking at. I'm not sure if I want to do it, because this is a relatively small company, it would be very clearly me who reported them, and the leader of this company is sort of a known sociopath who would probably not be above blackballing me and making it very hard for me to be employed. It's a little depressing, because I wrote that blog post so that I people searching for how certain medications affect them could know what they were in for, I didn't think it would be weaponized against me, but I guess that was a little naive on my end.
  - jedimastert 1y ago
    "Blackmail" you how? It's sort of already "public" as it is. I would highly recommend reporting them anyways, but they choice is yours

alexpotato 1y ago

In defense of social media, going to share a typical conversation I have with some younger (mid 20s) folks that I mentor: Me: "Do you use social media?" Them: "NO! Social media is so toxic!" Me: "You mentioned earlier that you are trying to get a job in X field, correct?" Them: "Yes, that's true" Me: "Have you found the relevant sub-Reddit, part of Twitter etc where people in that field hang out and/or share ideas?" Them: "Well, no." Me: "So how about this: first find the online place where those people hang out. Second, why don't you write up a blog post or summary of something you've done in the field and post it there. If you haven't done something IN the field, then maybe talk about how you learned about the field or what you find interesting about it etc. Then post that in the sub-Reddit etc." <few weeks go by> Them: "I followed your advice and someone from a firm in the field I'm interested saw it, read it, commented on it and reached about having a conversation." Me: "Excellent! I always say that the lifetime marginal benefit of going from zero to one social media post about you describing/writing about your preferred industry is ENORMOUS" (We usually move on to another topic with the mentee after this) Prior to social media, the only way you could do this was to do one of the following: - go to college in that field - hangout, physically, where the folks you wanted to interact with were - physically send letters to people with your article/summary idea - etc I feel like a lot of folks forget this and are blinded by the downsides of social media (which, to be fair, there are many)

SkipperCat 1y ago
What you describe is the best of what social media can be. Real people connecting, interacting with each other and helping folks. Sadly, a lot of social media is not this. Its people and bots posting content designed to inflame, generate hate and make people feel bad about themselves by comparing their own lives to unattainable goals (eg: Instagram). Add to this the addictive way Social Media engineers their sites to keep people swiping rather than interacting with real people and you have a product which may be more net negative than positive. I wish there were more instances of Social Media operating in the way you describe. That was the dream...
thewebguyd 1y ago
> - hangout, physically, where the folks you wanted to interact with were There's also nothing wrong with this! The more and more interactions we move online, the more purely transactional they become and we miss out on a lot of connection with our fellow humans, which have a multitude of benefits other than just professional networking. The other problem with social media is your choice is removed from you. I run a photography business as a side hustle, and without social media, it would have never gotten off the ground and if I want it to continue I'm required to basically not only be good at the photography aspect, but to be good at social media and having that social media persona. It's draining, and extremely damaging for one's mental health and if you run a small business chances are you just don't have a choice, you have to do it or you don't get to exist (up to a certain point until word of mouth can carry you, but even then not having a social media presence is a red flag for many). Social media itself doesn't need to be bad, or harmful, but that would require getting rid of algorithmic feeds, and to stop rewarding engagement, which will solve the "influencer" problem. I'd also go as far to say that social media shouldn't be the end game, but a tool that eventually leads to a real, physical connection/in person event. Social media should augment those communities, but not be the entirety of the community.

mrtksn 1y ago

I want the old internet back, considering that history is cyclical I have high hopes that it will come back. However I subscribe to the idea that history doesn't repeat itself but rhymes so I expect it to be amazing again in a slightly different form. Currently its infestation of for-profit content that got even worse with generative AI and curated through for-profit algorithms that drain our life for attention. However, if you pay close attention to the non-advertiser friendly content and content that AI refuses to generate(which is mostly extremist left and right BS), you will see that there's a sustainable path for content that is not discovered and created the way it is now. Yes, currently the only organic content is the extremist content. Yes, those de-platformed people actually didn't go away. They create authentic high quality Bull Shit, have audience that care and they are doing just fine. Which makes me believe that there must be a way for non-crazy, non-racist, non-extremist people for once again have authentic high quality content. Interestingly, when Erdogan of Turkey cornered the mainstream media and deplatformed the non-complying journalists those journalists also adopted new ways. For many years, the advertisement on those channels were laughing stock. It was mostly hair removal cream and ideology oriented books but they survived anyway and the Erdogan acquired media lost steam as it wasn't authentic anymore and those small channels and social media platforms became mainstream. To the point that he is now once again trying to destroy them as his media is no good to push his narrative. So yes, content is king and nature finds its way.

azemetre 1y ago
The old internet has never left, it's just the vast majority of people went to the corporatized internet instead. You can still find small communities of a few dozen or hundred people posting on forums that aren't reddit or facebook. You aren't going to find them because Google does not care about discovery they care about ads. Webrings are one trick to find your people, but it's hard and most webrings don't point to "gathering spots."
- jjulius 1y ago
  >You aren't going to find them because Google does not care about discovery they care about ads. I frequently post to two very small, hobby-specific phpBB forums with old-internet-style communities that I found by googling the hobby. The forums themselves were listed at the top of Google's results when looking for the broader hobby, and I regularly find specific posts in Google results when searching for very specific subject matter.

DudeOpotomus 1y ago

It's 2025 and McDonald's is still the #1 most popular restaurant in the whole world. Social Media is fast food. The masses will consume it to their death... The rest of the population is bifurcating. The only people who will remain on Social Media will be poor, uneducated and the stupid. Not that different than the people who eat fast food, often.

stride 1y ago

I like the irony of making a very public blog/social media post about not using social media.

8200_unit 1y ago

If the author was really done with social media they would delete their accounts. Since the accounts are not deleted the door is still open. I deleted my accounts over 5 years ago and don't miss anything. In fact I think it has strengthened my connections with friends pushing me to text and call more people. The only regret I have is as a security researcher I lose out on some good OSINT data. There are ways around it but the walled gardens are quite secure and require ID to enter.

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

freeopinion 1y ago

I think posting a note about your graduation so that all your friends and family can read a single note is a great use of social media. Reading about your niece's archery trophy is social media. You can do this through email. But a personal website is a bit more interesting and preserves some privacy for the audience. Hosting your own site is beyond the abilities of most people, so it makes sense to have some easy hosting solution. A social media service is a fantastic idea. Doom scrolling through Tiktok is not social. Most people do not use "social media" services strictly as social media services. They use them as news services, music streaming services, etc. And most "social media" services encourage this and make it difficult to use their sites for social media. A decent social media provider, like a decent email provider or hosting provider would have to charge money for their service. I don't know how many people would want such a service nor how many people would be willing to pay for it.

ReaperCub 1y ago

> I'm not a natural on camera and I don't have that talent for talking effortlessly and engagingly to a lens when alone in a room that successful social media personalities need. I was forcing it all the time, making myself record multiple takes and doing things again and again until they looked "natural" (a highly unnatural behaviour). My video editing skills are basic, so turning out regular videos took me a long time. They would have done better and would have resented it less if they had just owned it and not worried as much. They would have become more comfortable on camera as a result. You first attempts at this are going to be rubbish anyway. So it better to just put stuff out there and iterate. All the big mistakes have been made by others and if you avoid those you will be fine. When I first started doing YouTube vids. I was determined I should be like some big coding channel. I didn't have the video editing skills, nor really knew enough OBS to do it effectively. So I was stressing about it. My videos did pretty decently (I had less than 50 subs and I had 1200 views on one of my videos). Now I am doing as if it is a hobby that I will hopefully turn into something more and I am enjoying it a lot more. I get decent engagement / views for my channel considering the size (200-1000 views per vid) when you have less than 500 subs is decent IMO. As I get better with the OBS/Kdenlive/Resolve I am sure I will have more fun editing.

sm00thbr41n 1y ago

who. gives. a. shit. > If all of this — a non-famous writer with a podcast deciding she's replacing Instagram with blogging — feels too inconsequential to write 4,500 words about, then you're not alone. I think so too, but I also couldn't not write this. Crazy that she gets it but doesn't get it at the same time.

bonoboTP 1y ago
It's a trend. Digital detox also.

lbrito 1y ago

>One evening, as I made my husband walk our dog past the same scenic view multiple times so that I could get the best shot of it for a video, I experienced a sudden wave of revulsion for myself and what I was doing. There's a beach in Northeastern Brazil called Maragogi. The water is calm and warm, and you can easily see schools of fish passing through your legs in many points. "Brazilian Caribbean" is its moniker, but if you ask me, the Caribbean should be called the "Central American Maragogi". Anyway, I rented a small apartment there for a while, and this one morning I observed this couple acting quite strangely. The young lady was repeating some movements -- none of them naughty. She was going in and out of the sea, splashing theatrically through the surf. Then I noticed the man of the couple: he was chasing after her maybe 4 or 5m away, holding and looking at the phone all the time. I went about my morning, walked a bunch, enjoyed the water, and started back after a couple of hours - the Sun gets dangerously strong around noon. The couple was still at the same spot, tirelessly repeating the same sad, pathetic choreography, again and again. I still can't understand those people. What a miserable existence we've built for ourselves.

drcongo 1y ago
I saw a lot of this exact behaviour in Ibiza recently, I will never understand it. I use the iOS photos widget to always have a photo from my camera roll on my home screen, and the little moment of joy I get from that is usually the memory of the event depicted. What future joy is going to come from a photo popping into your day of that time you spent 2 hours standing in front of something doing very slightly different poses while your long-suffering friend or partner was forced to take photos of each and every one of them?

kmarc 1y ago

For those who don't even open TFA: she is a creator, not a consumer in social media, and she only started two years ago. It's a long ass post about how fake those people are and how fake you yourself become once you start creating that content. Wishing the best of luck for the journey. This was a refreshing exception among all those "enough, I quit social media". OTOH, here I am still surprised how many people find it fulfilling to either be a performing monkey in this palm-sized vertical cage, or the opposite, why is it so fulfilling to watch those monkeys hours long, daily. "monkey" sounds harsh, I know, but in reality, these performers are barely more than just copying, mirroring other ones, with possibly more followers. What a time to be alive in.

dentemple 1y ago
At the very least, one should be a regular user of a platform prior to marketing on that platform. Every platform has nuance to it, and if you don't understand that nuance, then you're better off paying someone else to do it on your behalf. The OP was never going to succeed in her efforts there.
- ozim 1y ago
  That’s tricky part to understand. On one hand it seems she already has audience so she should have positive traction. On the other hand it seems like she started from 0 on the platforms and expected to be already a star “because I am an author”. Then she wanted to hack away with tricks like “posting daily” attracting people who liked her “dog posts” - because she didn’t have better stuff to post. I read that post yesterday and it started sinking in. She did everything wrong. Her audience as she mentioned wasn’t transferable to socials so she really was starting there from scratch. Posting your funny dog pictures and your daily routine will not make you stand out - everyone does that. Being “an author” also doesn’t make much of a difference when I can follow J.K Rowling and watch her funny dog pictures or laugh at her making inappropriate comments. Edit: I also checked just now what was her book. That’s definitely not aligning with lifestyle influencing with happy dogs or husband in perfect golden hour video.
wredcoll 1y ago

viccis 1y ago

Part of the problem is that most of these social media platforms have abandoned the "social media" paradigm entirely (which is to say, a platform that lets you interact and stay in touch with people you know via the internet) and shifted to an enshittified attention economy monster that turns users into content producers and content consumers, not always of content that has anything to do with socializing. It seems like this author is effectively struggling with marketing in the attention economy. It sucks, but honestly this just sounds like the same challenge that marketing has been grappling with for ages.

markerz 1y ago

There’s an easier way to promote on social media without becoming a life consuming personal brand. Get yourself on those accounts that curate content. Get your song featured on curated Spotify lists or Instagram/TikTok accounts that review books of a specific genre, or get a guest spot on a podcast about your topic. This is like the old way of marketing. In the old days, you’d apply to talk at writing conventions, table, do book tours at stores, go to relevant events locally, and partner with libraries locally. To follow the song analogy, musicians used to send songs to DJs and radio hosts. Maybe your at a college radio level, or local broadcasting. Find your stations, build up your reputation. In the end of the day, people have found their networks and communities. You should try to enter them and be a part of those communities rather than build one up for yourself. The author has this insite when she describes most of her following is through some form of word of mouth. This social media era is the same, except some of the word of mouth is direct (DMs, IRL conversations) and others are through communities. In an era of everything being algorithmically served to you, I’m impressed by how often personal recommendations weigh far heavier for people. A good example I’ve seen is restaurants. Sure, I might Google or Yelp, but if someone I know has similar taste recommends a place, I’ll give it a shot. It doesn’t need to be someone I know IRL or virtual, it’s just a person who shares the same interests. I think this works well if you’re trying to promote something real, like what this author is doing. I have no solution for personal content.

panzagl 1y ago

She has a blog, podcast, and email newsletter- is she really not using social media?

ReaperCub 1y ago
Most people don't consider those as social media.

simpaticoder 1y ago

I've often wondered if you can't have your cake and eat it too by treating social media as write-only. If you just post, but don't read comments, demonetize, don't track performance, you break the cycle of feedback and measurement that shapes inauthentic behavior. This doesn't mean you take NO feedback, because you can always offer an intentionally "high-friction" means of contacting you (I personally like the idea of a time-limited email address that is the answer to a riddle presented in the content. Or a PO Box). It's deeply uncertain, even unlikely, that this will work because users crave engagement, feeling like their involved, and this "shape" of social media is more akin to legacy TV and print media which is "fire and forget". But still, I think it's an experiment worth doing.

techterrier 1y ago
of course you can, theres lots of healthy ways of engaging with and using social media... its just that for whatever reason, we've invested the lives of many of our best minds into pulling you into the unhealthy ways, as they make the line go up.
- simpaticoder 1y ago
  I suppose my question was less about whether or not one can do the experiment, and more about whether or not anyone has done it and whether it was successful. I could see it going either way.
iluvlawyering 1y ago
Been doing this for almost a decade. Drive-by social media. My pages are all public too. Check iluvlawyering on Instagram and you'll see hundreds of posts without any responses. There's even a post that I made as a channel marker of sorts (paraphrasing: click on this and tap on that, all day long its click, click, clack, feel free to click on this there's no tapping back. Needless to say I haven't scrolled or engaged with anything on any of my own feeds in years. It's also important not to curate or review what you've already posted. That was an issue for the first couple years but it's all smooth sailing now.
immibis 1y ago

coffeecoders 1y ago

We as engineers did this and we should fix this! Personal plug: https://nabraj.com/blog/swipe-scroll-repeat-addiction/ https://nabraj.com/blog/swipe-scroll-repeat-addiction/

zer0zzz 1y ago

These kinds of posts are so played out

ViktorRay 1y ago

Social media was never a wholly cosy or useful place for me, although I was utterly addicted to it for a number of years because "being a journalist" in the 2010s felt synonymous with "being on social media all the time". Wait what? Is this true? Can anyone familiar with the journalism field chime in here? Because if this is true then it would explain the general deterioration of the media environment we live in. Hell sometimes I listen to NPR while driving and I here the jounralists talk about random reddit comments and I feel perturbed that browsing reddit would be considered journalism. But being on social media all the time is considered journalism apparently?

zkmon 1y ago

You wrote a long blog post. Shows that you are not done yet. Social media is about craving for attention and spending your attention. That's not bad. Getting attention gives a purpose for what you do. Giving attention gives you new exposures. New exposures cause aging, like the scales in the wood. New attention you get, gives you existence. The idea is to grow bigger in existence without much aging.

doka_smoka 1y ago

I have abstained from most social media since 2012, to include Linkedin. I enjoy that my friendships and social connections feel satisfying but more importantly, consensual. The decision has been to my detriment in some ways, but affirming in others - for instance, I recorded an album for my metal project. It has 200 listens on Bandcamp. Could I have more ears if I blasted shit out over X or intentionally marketed myself and the project? Of course. But do I care to? No. Social media broke its promise by degenerating into a billboard. I have no interest in contributing to that beast.

alganet 1y ago

Ok, good point. Good luck with the book.

mattgreenrocks 1y ago

Social media's been coasting on unearned legitimacy since at least 2012 or so. Remember the countless thinkpieces about the wisdom of crowds? Conceivably, social media crowds could somehow solve all sorts of really hard problems because in the mass of people conversing we'd be able to amplify voices who weren't being heard and get harder problems solved. The truth of it is social media is a massively multiplayer video game where the goal is to build a following through posts, replies, and various social metrics. This reframing situates it correctly for me: should I play video games for 4 hours straight everyday? Maybe not if I want to feel balanced as an individual. Should I let randos from a video game tell me I should be putting more time in? Absolutely not: they are still randos, regardless of how many Internet Points they have. Do I want their level of brainrot? No, thus I should I always be mindful of the effects on me. It also makes exceedingly clear that social media should never be confused with whatever your quality work is that needs to get done. It is not a substitute for actually doing things. It offers a pale shadow of communication, friendship, and action. People should want more than the lousy facsimiles that it provides.

singpolyma3 1y ago

Oops a blog is social media

drcongo 1y ago

It's always weird when two worlds collide - I listen to Caroline's podcast "Shedunnit", a lovely warm hug of a show about the golden age of detective fiction, so I was a bit surprised to see her on HN. I highly recommend the podcast - it's not a subject I have a great deal of interest in, I just love listening to people talk about a niche that they're deeply interested in, and Caroline's love for the subject matter is contagious.

wonder_er 1y ago

I started blogging in 2012, have been going pretty consistently since then. I currently 'go hard' on tiktok, because I've recently been collecting tons of footage of mobility networks via drone and 360 camera (mostly while I ride my scooter/small motorcycle around) the tiktok editor is pretty good for that purpose, and then I bring some clips back to my blog. For instance, https://josh.works/traffic-bean https://josh.works/traffic-bean has text, links to some substacks I wrote, a youtube video embed (drone footage) and tiktok embeds (insta360 footage). It does the trick. But everything that isn't on my website I count as ephemeral, discard, creative detritus that I create lots of so I can occasionally get the good bits. I love having my website. I can write whatever I want. I can write about grief, or supremacy, or ruby, or american road networks, and I have a list of subscribers (~300) via email that I can talk to directly. I love to see other people's blogs. It's so much more interesting to me than an instagram or tik tok or whatever. :)

ricardo81 1y ago

There may be already existent threads covering my thoughts Big tech algorithms are filled with absolute dog shit. What were previously information discovery algorithms have been replaced by, basically dog shit. I have gave up on Facebook, Twitter, and most recently LinkedIn as a millennial. All I see is fantastical nonsense and spam. The rate it's going, if you want to reach someone over 40 in the UK, try Ceefax.

game_the0ry 1y ago

I have a hypothesis - media production [1] will gradually shift from social medial platforms to individualized (decentralized) platforms [2]. I think there are a lot of reasons for this trend: * People are becoming increasing distrustful of platforms and there owners. * The platform algos push a lot of noise and inflammatory content for engagement, something that users are getting fatigue from. * On the creator side, the professional producers of social media will find it increasingly difficult to monetize from their platforms. In fact, I think the platforms will eventually realize how much power they have over their popular creators and charge the creators in order to have full access to their audiences. * Additionally on the creator side, they can be banned at any moment with little or no recourse. Imagine being a professional creator on instagram, and one day you are banned for no reason. You lose total access to your following. So I think the attention will slowly shift away from the platforms, which increasingly just serve as a parasitic middle men, back to creators + their followers (newsletters, blogs, private chat, websites with owned domains, etc). [1] Whatever people tend to post on social media, whether its images, text, audio, or video. [2] Blogs, websites, email, owned domains, etc.

photon_garden 1y ago

My rule for social media is “don’t feed the sirens.” Like Caroline, there are many things I’d rather do than donate my time to help Mark Zuckerberg sell ads. This is why, for example, I don’t post my art on social media.

OldfieldFund 1y ago

"I still want to be in touch with those who are interested in my work. I've spent most of 2025 so far working out what that might look like." I don't understand how you can get eyes on your blog without social media, and with how Google works nowadays, unless you are a celebrity.

chistev 1y ago
I don't understand it either. Perhaps word of mouth? Your friends and work colleagues read your blog and share the ones they love to their own friends, etc. I don't know.

ujkiolp 1y ago

the only blogs i’ve found worth reading are the ones that have something to say other than just “why i have a blog”

voshond 1y ago

I think the author was a bit confused on what „do social media“ means. This, like any other promotional marketing channel, lives based on building an audience that comes for that value OR is genuinely interested in your content. Just creating some random videos about god knows what without any overarching context or value (entertainment) provided, leaves the audience clueless about what this channel means. It’s like your uncle uploading random videos without any sort of narrative and each video being completely random. Doing „social media“ probably means to either build a following by providing content that involves book or are around the topic books, that regardless of interest in the current book in question, will make the audience come back because they are getting some kind of value and/or entertainment. Posting videos about a book and then next about a husband walking the dog does not really spark an interest to come back for more (unless I am personally interested to support a particular creator (which these followers also did)). Unfortunately just trying to build a social media presence to promote a book is naive. The advice to „do social media“ is too broad. But social media IS a powerful channel to reach audiences, just not without either already owning a channel that covers the subject matter on a regular basis to attract the audience or without the willingness to spend money. Placing advertisements or striking deals with book related channels would probably be more effective.