Just Use The Web

trenchant.org · by adam mathes · archive · rss

July 6, 2023

I’ve felt this way for a while, but this year it seems more obvious: just use the web.

Just use the web.

This was mostly ideological but increasingly is just pragmatic.

The assumption in the past was there was a tradeoff between putting things on your own web site and using centralized social media: you could choose to give up independence, monetization, and autonomy for convenience and reach. See: the internet we deserve

I thought this was a bad deal. But people could make decisions about that tradeoff: for the vast majority of people, convenience and reach far outweigh the costs – so much so that without the convenience, feedback and engagement from a centralized platform most people would not bother. And they didn’t before those.

But also I’m sort of an antisocial weirdo? I don’t expect people to act like me or think it’s rational.

What’s changed in the decade since I wrote that piece is that there’s now a pragmatic imperative to use your own, self-hosted, decentralized tools: Twitter simply doesn’t work, and too many people couldn’t imagine that world. But it’s the one we live in and I’m not sure any of the big platforms will last – Reddit seems next. q Pragmatically: the tradeoff isn’t working – Twitter doesn’t work, public URLs stopped working, the user base has departed. It’s never going to be the same.

It’s sad to visit.

Maybe it was less a rational tradeoff and just a Faustian bargain all along. Seems unlikely jumping to the next centralized thing will change that.

Our core identity and online life isn’t owned by anyone else. The bits in a corporate database aren’t your friends.

What About The Fediverse? Email? RSS

Sure, fine, ok, it’s not about the protocol. Use the fediverse if you want. Whatever.

Just own your own stuff. Find a way to care enough to care for your creative output.

Invest the time to create space for your output that is your own.

At some point I may even send something to list.trenchant.orgtrenchant.org list) or try to earnestly use the fediverse: @adam@decommodify.com.