The Last Days of social media
Agree with everything here, a perfect encapsulation of the cesspit - and solid ideas for a future. I’m very likely retreating to my blog / newsletter combo before too long; the socials are way past their prime and if I’m going to be online, I’d rather it be somewhere I enjoy myself. Mainly talking to myself in public.
The choice isn’t between technological determinism and Luddite retreat; it’s about constructing alternatives that learn from what made major platforms usable and compelling while rejecting the extractive mechanics that turned those features into tools for exploitation. This won’t happen through individual choice, though choice helps; it also won’t happen through regulation, though regulation can really help. It will require our collective imagination to envision and build systems focused on serving human flourishing rather than harvesting human attention.
Social media as we know it is dying, but we’re not condemned to its ruins. We are capable of building better — smaller, slower, more intentional, more accountable — spaces for digital interaction, spaces where the metrics that matter aren’t engagement and growth but understanding and connection, where algorithms serve the community rather than strip-mining it.