The web feels exciting again
The recent and unexpectedly fast implosion of Twitter made me realize that it's just not a place that I want to spend much more of my time. It seems to me like there are a lot of other folks that feel the same. I have been spending more time over on Mastodon and keep seeing some version of the same comment over and over—"Wow, this feels like the old, pre-corporate social media Web". I agree.
I built my first website in 2007. I was about to be laid off from my job at the time and needed an online portfolio fast so I could put it on my resume. I authored all of the static HTML and CSS by hand. After a couple weeks of work I ended up with a folder full of files that I dragged from my hard drive and dropped at the root of my new hosting account with a plain old FTP client. And that was it, I had a website! What a cool feeling.
I've had a lot of those same nostalgic feelings the past couple of weeks. It's got me fired up to put more energy into my personal site where I own all the content I create. For now, this is how I'm thinking about my relationship with the web and social media:
- My personal site as home base—If I want to share a thought, maybe write a blog post instead
- Mastodon for sharing and interaction with humans
- RSS for keeping up with with other folks that are writing on their own sites
Honestly, I'm addicted to Twitter and it's probably going to take me a while to give it up completely, but I have spent considerably less time there in the last couple of weeks and I plan to keep that up. If you feel the same maybe grab my RSS feed and/or find me on Mastodon. ✌️