Created this website

June 2021


Why a website/blog in this present day and age?

In early 2020, as I had quite a lot of college assessments piling up, I started getting interested in focus, attention, and how to tame ADHD. This is when I discovered Waking Up, got serious about meditation, and also stumbled across the Humane Tech website, which gave plenty of advice on how to better use one’s devices. Following the rabbit hole, I arrived at the conclusion that the cost of having social media accounts far outweighed their benefits in my case, and decided in May of 2020 to delete every social media account I had. The present website acts as a way for me to still have an online presence.

Why delete social media in favor of a blog?

To use my free time as I wish

First of all, it was a way for me to take back some control over my life when I felt I spent more and more time looking at social media instead of doing more productive things. I’m not saying you should always be productive, or that some entertainment isn’t good. I’m just saying that in my case, it was how I spent most of my days when I had other things that I wanted to do.

This is not a matter of will. Most social medias are designed to keep their users browsing as long as possible to ensure maximum ad-revenue. It’s your will versus a billion-dollar optimised corporate machinery, specifically made for you to browse content endlessly. You can’t win every time.

All in all, it’s about preferences. It also has to do with what I value. Some people don’t mind giving away some privacy for what they get out of social media. All the power to them. In my case, I was losing more than I got back, which is why I quit.

To protest against the rising attention economy

As I said, most social media platforms make money by serving their free users targeted advertisement. Companies are ready to pay a good price for this kind of service, which ensures more sales than traditional advertising. The goal of platforms that rely on ads is then to keep users browsing for maximum ad-exposition, and thus maximum revenue. It’s a simple equation.

The problem is when the interests of platforms—namely to please shareholders by always growing, and thus keeping the user browsing for as long as possible—clash with the interests of their very users—who would maybe like to do something else with their free time than consume content.

There is also the fueling of hate, because outrageous and wrong-but-believable content provides more engagement; or the echo-chamber effect when algorithms only always serve us what we want to see. This drives polarisation, and weakens dialogue and empathy between us. It is not healthy for our society, our institutions, and ultimately our democracy.

Leaving these platforms behind to run my own website is my way of saying I don’t want to be a part of this. This blog does not run any ads. It does not collect any information about you, nor tracks you around the internet. I do not care how long you stay here, or if you even read my content. You are in power. You read what you want to, for as long as you feel the need to.

To take back control over my own data

There is always a relevant xkcd comic

Anything you host on an external website is theoretically your property, but by posting, you grant the host a license to use your content as they see fit. Also, if the service comes to an end, there is no guarantee you’ll be able to get your data back. Anything I post on my website is my property and it’s always there, even though it costs me around two coffees per month.

Finally, I have absolute control over this server. I can host anything I want, text, pictures, videos, or even a literal web apps. I’m also able to present things how I want to present them. I can write whatever I want to, and you’re free to read it or not. Embarrassing pictures also can’t follow me here like they could on social media, even though there are none, I promise.