Published multiple files

content/06 AUTHOR/12 MUSINGS/Social Media Isn't Social.md

@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+---
+publish: true
+created: 2026-01-21T13:29:26.549-07:00
+modified: 2026-01-21T13:54:49.189-07:00
+cssclasses: ""
+---
+
+I grew up without social media for the most part. I was 16 (?) when I first got my hands on a [MySpace](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myspace) account and it was something absolutely magical. You actually networked, socially, with friends. A Social Network if you will. You sent messages, shared music, ranked your friends in what was frankly a brutal contest. But the thing I remember most about MySpace is that it was truly social.
+
+Then came Facebook, and it too was social, at least to start with. You connected with friends, they posted stuff to their wall, you saw what your friends posted in their feed, and so on. Early Facebook was actually kind of nice. There were a few other social networks that came and went, but then something fundamental changed.
+
+The networks were not social any more. Content from your friends was rapidly superseded by content fed to you by The Algorithm. It wasn't an overnight change, but it was fast enough that it was noticeable. Gone were the things you had purposefully connected to, instead you were given the things you were "interested in". 
+
+Then came a realization for The Algorithm, things that you were "interested in" were not nearly as interesting as things that angered you. So more and more you were shown things that demanded your outrage. Comments, once reserved for telling your friend how cool they looked in skinny jeans, were now aimed solely at communicating how outraged you were at The Thing that The Algorithm had shoved in your face.
+
+And this is why I abandoned social media for a long time. I lurked, I scraped around every now and again for something I wanted to see, but I did not engage like I once did. Gone were the days where i tinkered with the HTML to impress my MySpace buddies, now social media was a chore, something i had to occasionally check on so I was not out of the loop.
+
+I missed social media, but it did not exist anymore. Outrage media did not interest me. Then I discovered the [Fediverse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fediverse). It is far from perfect, it still has that undertone of enragement engagement from some users, but it is far closer to the social media I remember. I run my own [[GoToSocial]] server from where I engage with folk on my nerdy passions in a way that is somewhat reminiscent of how I used to display my passions in basic HTML. My feed is only content from folks I follow, I have the power to filter it as I see fit, and it is probably the closest I will ever get to the glory days of what I remember through some very heavily rose tinted glasses.
+
+Just do not let anyone tell you that TikTok, Facebook, Twitter (X?), or whatever else is spawned from the corporate hellscape is Social Media. It's not social, it is something nefarious. You are not some kind of degenerate for yearning for social media either, connection is important, more so today than ever before. Just do not expect to get it from a platform that needs your undivided attention in order to survive.