# Why I do not use social media

As common as this type of post or blog entry may be, I really wish to speak out on this.

For years and months long before, I thought I would not be able to live without some sort of social platform. In most cases, I spent time and time again, looking at varying posts on various apps.

I probably spent most of it on YouTube. Considering how easy it is to find content on there, with sheer amounts of videos, it is no wonder why that is the case. Though, all of this is still pretty much served by the algorithm and not my own sound reasoning.

Now, algorithms are various - today this is pretty much a blanket term. Either way almost all, if not all, social media use some sort of algorithm for finding and choosing the content you are most likely to consume and, thus, spend more time on the platform. As a result, however, it ends up destroying the human brain, with endless stream of mindless content.

This is not how it used to be: without enough computational power or the modern technologies we use, there was no way of serving such an algorithm en masse. Somehow, people still found entertainment in the BASIC programs from magazines or their own discovery and learning. People spent time finding good sites and reading blogs or, at the time, just reading the personal sites of others.

Now, though, we are served a mindless and ad-filled web. We are served filtered content and censored news. Sites are heavy and riddled with useless features or tons of spying javascript. That is not how it should be.

But, more specifically with social media, this means there is not much to read or see anymore. As mass media and newspapers became the advertising area of big corporations and data collectors for governments, this ends up with no interesting content. People often no longer make or write anything useful out there in the big and "modern" web, and the output of collective opinions is filtered through a propaganda machine.

This is worrying, but sad too. I used to read a lot, and I still do, but nowadays I use only two or three sites at best. Reading from QotNews [0] or Wikipedia, sometimes including a rare, useful RSS feed I found. I no longer have a desire, if I even ever had one, to post on big social media like X [1], Facebook or Instagram. There is nothing interesting to earn from being there: just revenue-collecting spyware.

Even Mastodon or other friendlier/more open socials or protocols like Bluesky [2] or Diaspora, too, are devoid of any meaning in the message (if any) they try to convey. There is simply no way to spark a meaningful conversation or interesting articles and news with short-form content. The inherent flaws of the human brain, though, cause us to become more overjoyed and stimulated at this kind of media.

I personally do not like that at all. I resent this kind of way of using the web and sending a message. I enjoy a long read, comfortable pillows and a good time understanding what the source material is trying to convey. Intriguing are those stories which are written about the people, not corporations or governments.

Blogs are a really comfy way to do all that. People either write about themselves, or things they are interested in. There is no manipulative algorithm in place to feed you ads or to make you more subject to manipulation overall.

I like that, for example, on Flounder all that exists is a "feed" with most newly updated profiles, or that bearblog filters by simple metrics, like how popular the profile is in a span of time. Both are related to time and mostly *people's* interest, not corporate or governmental manipulation.

Which is why I do not use social media: they do not provide this comfy, minimal space where I can make tea, get some snacks and read up, hopefully maybe even learn here and there.

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[0] https://news.t0.vc/
[1] I like to seperate current X from the Twitter in the past as, differently from then, X is a filtered far-right propaganda machine, with little bearing on anything else than being a tool of an (in)famous narcissist and neo-feudalist
[2] Even though Bluesky is by far more free and reasoning of a social media platform, it has it's downsides and is largely part of what constitutes to my negative part of the web anyway