DisLike

[pshaw_raven]

 Can "Indie" Social Media Save Us? an interesting article by Cal Newport - soft paywall

I think there's a lot to be said in favor of recent ideas like the much-touted one of "break up Facebook," but to me the better question is "do we even need social media at all?" And I think the answer is "Nope." Jaron Lanier is correct in his assertion that social media is basically ruining everything - civilization, discourse, free time, and our brains. And the remedy for that may not be better social media platforms, but personal-level decisions to abandon it altogether. I don't know where this would leave things like Dreamwidth - though to be honest I see a difference between blogging platforms and social media ones.

Comments

[pshaw_raven]

Part of what I think sets DW and LJ apart - along with similar platforms - is that there isn't really a built in way to instantly respond to a post. You can't just click "like" or a series of emoji and keep scrolling, and you can't just immediately share something. So there's a gap between reading a post and responding that gives us time to think and consider, because you have to actually hit the "reply" link, then type something up and post it. And posting to your own blog doesn't exactly lend itself to off-the-cuff style posts. It CAN, but so far as I know there's no mobile app for posting here, which would certainly change the dynamic.

For example, I waited almost a day before responding to some comments on my own posts. Not because I needed a cooling off period, the comments weren't drama, just regular responses. But it seems as if DW allows you to have that space and time, whereas other networks and platforms are more geared to poking you for instant responses, deliberately driving reactions rather than allowing for thought.