Using a Blog Instead of Social Media
Crazy right!?
Why do this? Here’s why…
- Addiction
- Social media is naturally made to be addictive.
- Over the past 10 years, social media has been finetuned to work against you and to push for your attention.
- Social Media Impacts the Whole World
- Most people use social media, it impacts a very large aspect of the world.
- Most social media generally has an “algorithm” to promote content. This algorithm is always being balanced and modified ever so slightly.
- They modify it to make people think certain ways, or to promote certain types of content over others. Effectively giving them the ability to brainwash the world.
- Look at those Tiktok challenges. No other platform promoted these challenges as much as Tiktok. It convinced people to do stupid things that they wouldn’t have done otherwise.
- It even got to the point that schools had to shutdown.
- Not Being in Control Over Content
- How are you not in control? You get to choose who you follow. Yep you do, but I constantly get crap in my feed that I don’t want to see.
- Things that I don’t follow get forced in my face no matter what.
- I want to be in control of the things that I get to see on social media.
- In my opinion it would be best just to be connected with your friends and family. I don’t care about the celebrities and all the other junk that gets thrown in my face.
- Being a Hypocrite
- I don’t support where social media is headed, and how manipulative it’s getting.
- Therefore, I will not use it. Under normal circumstances
Why I Kinda Use Social Media
A couple of months ago I deleted my Instagram account. I used it primary with connecting with friends. And since then I have started to regret it.
Here’s my philosophy that led to me deleting it.
If you don’t support it, don’t use it.
You know, basically don’t be a hypocrite.
Since then, I missed seeing what my friends are up to and connecting to them through that. So it’s hard to support both, you know? I don’t want to support Facebook by using Instagram, but I want to support my friends by seeing and messaging with them on the platform.
So I decided to get back on the platform. But I have a specific way of going about things that screws over Facebook and Instagram 😂
The Solution
I won’t post on Instagram. I will instead be using my microblog.
- Posts on my microblog will be similar to how I would post on Instagram.
- I will keep my blog seperate, because my posts there will be more technical and informational.
I use the regular Instagram web client. I dabbled using Instaloader. Which is basically just a Instagram command line scraper, but it almost led to me getting banned. So I guess I won’t be going with that.
Advantages using Instagram web instead of the app…
- No ads and less tracking.
- Using uBlockOrigin addon to block them along with the Mull browser.
- No promotion of accounts I don’t follow.
- Tiktok style stories aren’t in the feed.
Basically I only see the posts of people I follow.
Anyways, social media is messy and big tech is making it a terrible platform to be on. Social media isn’t all bad, it’s definitely being used for good. But the platforms are designed to work against you for your attention. So it’s best to have alternative ways of reaching others, not just through social media.
Get a Website
If you are reading this and you don’t have a website, I encourage you get a website!
Everyone uses the same 5 websites, it’s important that you own your own land on the internet. Most people can agree owning a house is much better than having to pay rent in an appartment. Do this on the internet! Post what you learn on your website, make posts that you would normally only do on Instagram, and put them on your website.
The information you learn is valuable, and your experiences and memories are unreplacable. With a website you have the freedom to display your information however you want and the freedom to own it.
I have found that this has made me a better writer, and has helped keep my thoughts more clear and organized. It may seem like a lot of work, but you can get a lot out of doing this.
You can use Neocities, BearBlog or Blogger, just start using something.
I use Hugo which is a bit more advanced for the average user, but still very simple once setup.
Conclusion
Social media addiction is really harmful. Please try to find what works best for you. I find with this solution I have been able to improve myself, while also maintaining connection with my friends and family. That’s what matters most, do your best to be better, little by little everyday. You will find that you can do amazing things.
Don’t start tomorrow, start today. Thank you for taking the time to read to read this. Please contact me if you have any questions, or if you just want to talk. Thanks! 😃