2020 Vision
Way back in 20061 I started a blog2. I started out posting quirky and (to me, at least) funny intellectual curiosities, and eventually transitioned to discussions on software development. It I had maybe five followers total3.
A year later I signed up for a Facebook account and transitioning there, doing all the things one does on Facebook: writing posts, uploading photos, Liking things, connecting with people. It was a relatively restrictive platform, but it came with two important aspects: a feedback mechanism (in the form of Likes and comments), and an audience. People were coming to Facebook, Facebook fed them my content, and Facebook made it easy for them to respond. It was a good system, and the more that people used it, the more attractive it became. Today, almost a third of all people on the planet are actively using Facebook.
That sort of scale gave Facebook a lot of power. We should not be surprised that they both corrupted and were corrupted by it – especially when originated from culture of naked ambition. And their product, tuned for addictiveness, turned out to be toxic to our mental, social, and political health.
At some point, when the effects and ethics become clear, you have to stop being a part of the machine. And so I started making an effort to detach from Facebook and the other social media titans.
This website is part of that. There is still value in being able to share thoughts and stories with those who are actively interested. Having ownership of both the content and the distribution mechanism is a step, small but necessary, towards a better world.
I’m not certain what I’ll post here, how often, or what form it will take. But, at the very least, I’ll have an alternative to social media, and perhaps encourage others to strike out on their own as well.