dreaming of a better internet

Large parasocial platforms transformed the internet into a hostile and impersonal place. They feed our FOMO to keep us clicking. They exaggerate our differences for "engagement". They create engines for stardom to keep us creeping. They bait us into nutritionless and sensationalist content. Humanity cannot subsist on hype alone.

Small and sincere... See more

and it's obvious -

that we all like computers,

- a lot -

in a super-creepy way,

and it is not a phase.

it's something that's really happening,

and it's going to continue.

and we can't stop.

The battle is between two wolves.

One is permanently angry, resentful, loud and aggressive. It’s always howling for our attention with sensational headlines, provocative images, and manipulative tactics.

It wants us to stay on the surface, encouraging us to react rather than reflect.

It feeds on outrage, doomscrolling, negativity, fear, and... See more

I myself write online of course and I will continue to do so but save for this essay, this latest contribution to the thousands of terabytes of jeremiads that festoon the worldwide web, I don’t have much to say about our online world anymore. I’m tired of it. Half an hour or so a day is ample time to catch up with my online community of people and... See more

self-hosted networks like Mastodon are an alternative that more people than ever before have experienced. There is more awareness that running these servers and instances in a way which meets the minimum bar of reasonableness costs time and money. And not an insignificant amount. These small communities that are safe, welcoming and adaptive require

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