what’s this website for?

This website is some parts a tech exercise and some, albeit fewer parts, an art project, primarily driven by my growing frustrations with social media. I am particularly frustrated with the business of social media, as well as its norms and restrictions. Also, it’s just something to do.

For a long time I have been aware of how big social media platforms, against the best interests of their users, are built to get us to spend more time on our phones. This is so that they can collect and sell more of our data. Of course, I knew this was evil, but I put up with it to catch up with my friends, keep up with my community, and see some funny videos. However, recently, Mark Zuckerberg has started rolling back protections for LGBT+ people on his platforms and using misogynistic rhetoric in interviews. As these things happen I am feeling worse and worse about continuing to use them and putting more money in the pockets of these big tech CEOs like Zuckerberg. Boycotting those platforms is much easier said than done, though, because so many people and entities I care about are still using them. I really am not active on any other platform, at least not as myself. Sure, we could all move to another platform, but why wouldn’t the same thing just happen on another website, with another company? When I make my own website, I’m not beholden to any company, any CEO, any rules.

I’m also not beholden to any norms here. The point of social media, as it was created, was to share things with people you knew, and keep in touch with them. I am observing that people don’t use it that way as much anymore. In fact, it would be impossible to use it that way now because of how the developers have changed the platform. Turns out, scrolling few a handful of posts once a day doesn’t generate tons of ad revenue. Hmm. So, it has become much more typical to spend time consuming on these platforms than posting. This becomes the social norm. Given that, how does posting on these platforms feel? In my opinion, not great! Maybe this is in my head, but because real people don’t do it that much, I feel like I’m going out on a limb, or like I’m bothering people. Additionally, what I can post is incredibly limited on Instagram. Pictures only! The website is infinitely customizable. I have full control over my online space, here.

This website is hosted on GitHub pages, and my domain is managed through CloudFlare. It’s old-school HTML+CSS with the Jekyll plugin. Someday, I might like to self-host this website. All opinions on this website are my own.