"Being a social media star is a skillset completely distinct from being someone who writes books — they may overlap occasionally, but it's not the norm."
As I just wrote to the author of this piece (who also happens to send out one of the best weekly roundups of weird and wonderful articles I get), her experience captures what so many authors I’ve worked with over the years in publishing have struggled with. When i can, i try to disabuse them of the idea that social media is somehow a reliable or necessary tool for promoting a book. As Caroline writes, if you already have a platform and it comes naturally to you, great, but I’ve personally never seen an author join social media in order to promote a book and actually succeed. And that’s before you even get to the exploitative dynamics she lays out so clearly here (aptly described as a pyramid scheme). Anyway, it’s all articulated beautifully, and I wish every author, especially those just starting to consider it, could read this and know there’s another way.
Same thing with LinkedIn for me specifically. I heard that it could be a great way to get a job. But then I tried it, was inundated with AI slop, and contacted by recruiters from companies that sounded dreadfully boring. And when it came to nearly 100% of the people I encountered there who were actually active, I'd rather freeze to death than work with them.
Yesterday I got a mail from Facebook: "*Woman_I_have_known mentioned you on Facebook".
Haven't used FB in years, mail looks legit, I get kinda curious. I tap it, and am immediately logged in, in DDG browser (which has 0 cookies when closing)!
To top it off, she didn't mention me, she mentioned some #tag on some stupid lottery for a van.
It's so disrespectful. So dirty. I know they don't give a * about me, but do they have to put it on so thick?
Between the fight over AI, shifting geopolitics reigniting old conflicts, an overly-centralized technology industry, a lack of meaningful innovation from a consumer perspective, and the immense precarity of modern work in general, it feels like we’re at the start of the end of a cycle.
I’m noticing more people taking stock of what’s actually important to them and taking a stand on their values. This is good in the long run, but in the immediate it results in a lot of binary/black-and-white decision-making that results in dustups and conflicts between groups who would normally be allied behind common goals.
All of this is to say that I expect we’ll see many, many, many more of these types of posts in the future, as everyone remembers they can choose to shape their engagement with technology, and that naturally includes the right to disconnect from it - not out of any sort of anti-technology position itself, necessarily, but simply from realizing that a specific thing isn’t something they need or are interested in, and that’s okay.
Props to the author for being so clear about their engagement with social media, their background, and their thought process. If it encourages more folks to reassess their own relationship with social media (or any technology), I’m all for it.
> I think the persistent advice to authors to "do social media" is, at best, part of a strategy that can be generously described as throwing everything at the proverbial wall in the hope that something, anything, will stick.
It also probably was pretty good advice until ~3 years ago.
I've been trying to use social media to promote my music & mobile app for years, to very little luck. I don't even really like using social media, but it felt "necessary" in order to "make it," even though there is nothing to see for all this effort.
Sometimes Facebook et al feel like a complete ghost town, with algorithmic content completely overwhelming any engagement from friends or acquaintances.
Yesterday I woke up, naturally, I started scrolling. The very first video (on Instagram) was an Uber driver getting pulled out of his car, a guy cocking a gun and executing him. I was barely awake and didn't really have time to react.
For the rest of the day I couldn't stop thinking about it, had high levels of anxiety for a few hours. I told all my friends I'm switching off for a bit on the socials. Mastodon and signal for a bit.
Edit: Just thinking about this happening yesterday puts me into a high state of anxiety.. Its absolutely bllsht these companies can effect us in this way.
Second Edit: Its my choice to expose myself knowingly, not entirely blaming meta. And I'm not going to anymore, but this is a more common experience than usual since Zuck got a chain and Tall-T
More and more Hacker News seems to be the contrarians and the “get off my lawn”s when it comes to AI and social media alike. I feel like there was a time in the late 2000s to early 2010s where we were still young and our skills were sharp and the tech was new and shiny, but the technology world kept moving and kept evolving and a lot of people…didn’t. Every day I see another post like “AI isn’t really smart, it’s just hype and I don’t like it!” or “I don’t use social media and here’s why!” or “Look at this phone I started using that isn’t a smartphone, I’m so much happier now”, all without realizing that this is just the “I don’t use the internet, it’s dangerous! My kids aren’t allowed to use it either!” or “I don’t need a cellphone, people can wait to call me when I’m home!” or “Why would I send a text message when I can just call?” of our time. People age and get set in their ways, and in my opinion in this rapidly evolving world of technology, it’s something that has to be actively avoided or we’ll get left behind.
"Although the blog will be the main home for all my stuff (you can follow it via RSS and I think you should, because RSS is possibly the best and purest tech we still have)"
This. I watch youtube through my RSS feed. The videos actually loads instantly, without their BS loading times if you load it on their page (in FF with adblock). I can set up rules in my RSS feed to filter out previews/trailers from channels I follow. I can sort my YT channels into categories (music, sports, etc). It's actually usable, and the controls are in my hand.
More people needs to use RSS feeds. Don't let algorithms dictate your life. Youtube engineers are the worst.
Getting rid of most social media has been one of the best things I have ever done. I didn’t just delete my accounts, I also blocked the sites so I can’t visit them.
The best one to delete was definitely reddit. It’s too easy to doomscroll. It’s such a time sink, and being hyper-aware of everything that’s going on nowadays just made me anxious all the time.
HN hasn’t proven to be much of an issue for me. I guess it’s just less active, so I run out of new content faster whenever I visit.
I never started with social media (I guess you can count reddit/HN) but beyond that - nope.
This isn't a "I'm so smart I saw the writing on the wall" thing it's entirely that I'm not hugely social anyway and social media is a weak reflection of been actually social.
Same with doom scrolling, it just doesn't seem to take with me.
I just got declined for a job yesterday because I had a post on my blog talking about my history with major depressive disorder and medication to address that. That's not just a cope on my end, they actually said that. I don't think I'm ambitious enough to try and sue them for it, I might report to some department in NYC for it though.
But I think I learned that being candid about yourself on the internet is a mistake. I have no idea why the fuck it would be a good idea to be upfront about my mental health history; who the hell knows how many jobs I've been declined for where they were smart enough to not say that that's why they were declining me.
I had already deleted most of my social media, the only ones I use regularly are Hacker News and the aforementioned blog [1], and I think I should probably just stop mentioning anything that isn't purely technical on either of them.
[1] Not really social media, but it is a public-facing thing with my name on it.
In defense of social media, going to share a typical conversation I have with some younger (mid 20s) folks that I mentor:
Me: "Do you use social media?"
Them: "NO! Social media is so toxic!"
Me: "You mentioned earlier that you are trying to get a job in X field, correct?"
Them: "Yes, that's true"
Me: "Have you found the relevant sub-Reddit, part of Twitter etc where people in that field hang out and/or share ideas?"
Them: "Well, no."
Me: "So how about this: first find the online place where those people hang out. Second, why don't you write up a blog post or summary of something you've done in the field and post it there. If you haven't done something IN the field, then maybe talk about how you learned about the field or what you find interesting about it etc. Then post that in the sub-Reddit etc."
<few weeks go by>
Them: "I followed your advice and someone from a firm in the field I'm interested saw it, read it, commented on it and reached about having a conversation."
Me: "Excellent! I always say that the lifetime marginal benefit of going from zero to one social media post about you describing/writing about your preferred industry is ENORMOUS"
(We usually move on to another topic with the mentee after this)
Prior to social media, the only way you could do this was to do one of the following:
- go to college in that field
- hangout, physically, where the folks you wanted to interact with were
- physically send letters to people with your article/summary idea
- etc
I feel like a lot of folks forget this and are blinded by the downsides of social media (which, to be fair, there are many)
The only real sign that you're free from social media is that you don't have the compulsion to write long posts and tell internet strangers all about it. Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Reddit, Substack, Hacker News...it's all the same. If you want to be free be truly free.
I want the old internet back, considering that history is cyclical I have high hopes that it will come back. However I subscribe to the idea that history doesn't repeat itself but rhymes so I expect it to be amazing again in a slightly different form.
Currently its infestation of for-profit content that got even worse with generative AI and curated through for-profit algorithms that drain our life for attention.
However, if you pay close attention to the non-advertiser friendly content and content that AI refuses to generate(which is mostly extremist left and right BS), you will see that there's a sustainable path for content that is not discovered and created the way it is now.
Yes, currently the only organic content is the extremist content. Yes, those de-platformed people actually didn't go away. They create authentic high quality Bull Shit, have audience that care and they are doing just fine. Which makes me believe that there must be a way for non-crazy, non-racist, non-extremist people for once again have authentic high quality content.
Interestingly, when Erdogan of Turkey cornered the mainstream media and deplatformed the non-complying journalists those journalists also adopted new ways. For many years, the advertisement on those channels were laughing stock. It was mostly hair removal cream and ideology oriented books but they survived anyway and the Erdogan acquired media lost steam as it wasn't authentic anymore and those small channels and social media platforms became mainstream. To the point that he is now once again trying to destroy them as his media is no good to push his narrative.
It's 2025 and McDonald's is still the #1 most popular restaurant in the whole world.
Social Media is fast food. The masses will consume it to their death...
The rest of the population is bifurcating. The only people who will remain on Social Media will be poor, uneducated and the stupid. Not that different than the people who eat fast food, often.
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Haven't used FB in years, mail looks legit, I get kinda curious. I tap it, and am immediately logged in, in DDG browser (which has 0 cookies when closing)!
To top it off, she didn't mention me, she mentioned some #tag on some stupid lottery for a van.
It's so disrespectful. So dirty. I know they don't give a * about me, but do they have to put it on so thick?
I’m noticing more people taking stock of what’s actually important to them and taking a stand on their values. This is good in the long run, but in the immediate it results in a lot of binary/black-and-white decision-making that results in dustups and conflicts between groups who would normally be allied behind common goals.
All of this is to say that I expect we’ll see many, many, many more of these types of posts in the future, as everyone remembers they can choose to shape their engagement with technology, and that naturally includes the right to disconnect from it - not out of any sort of anti-technology position itself, necessarily, but simply from realizing that a specific thing isn’t something they need or are interested in, and that’s okay.
Props to the author for being so clear about their engagement with social media, their background, and their thought process. If it encourages more folks to reassess their own relationship with social media (or any technology), I’m all for it.
It also probably was pretty good advice until ~3 years ago.
Sometimes Facebook et al feel like a complete ghost town, with algorithmic content completely overwhelming any engagement from friends or acquaintances.
For the rest of the day I couldn't stop thinking about it, had high levels of anxiety for a few hours. I told all my friends I'm switching off for a bit on the socials. Mastodon and signal for a bit.
Edit: Just thinking about this happening yesterday puts me into a high state of anxiety.. Its absolutely bllsht these companies can effect us in this way.
Second Edit: Its my choice to expose myself knowingly, not entirely blaming meta. And I'm not going to anymore, but this is a more common experience than usual since Zuck got a chain and Tall-T
She's saying "I'm done trying to use social media for commercial purposes".
This. I watch youtube through my RSS feed. The videos actually loads instantly, without their BS loading times if you load it on their page (in FF with adblock). I can set up rules in my RSS feed to filter out previews/trailers from channels I follow. I can sort my YT channels into categories (music, sports, etc). It's actually usable, and the controls are in my hand.
More people needs to use RSS feeds. Don't let algorithms dictate your life. Youtube engineers are the worst.
The best one to delete was definitely reddit. It’s too easy to doomscroll. It’s such a time sink, and being hyper-aware of everything that’s going on nowadays just made me anxious all the time.
HN hasn’t proven to be much of an issue for me. I guess it’s just less active, so I run out of new content faster whenever I visit.
This isn't a "I'm so smart I saw the writing on the wall" thing it's entirely that I'm not hugely social anyway and social media is a weak reflection of been actually social.
Same with doom scrolling, it just doesn't seem to take with me.
For me the (bad) usage patterns are very similar between here and there.
Made my own site instead: https://photos.dombarker.co.uk/
Gets about 1 visit a week from google. And thats ok.
But I think I learned that being candid about yourself on the internet is a mistake. I have no idea why the fuck it would be a good idea to be upfront about my mental health history; who the hell knows how many jobs I've been declined for where they were smart enough to not say that that's why they were declining me.
I had already deleted most of my social media, the only ones I use regularly are Hacker News and the aforementioned blog [1], and I think I should probably just stop mentioning anything that isn't purely technical on either of them.
[1] Not really social media, but it is a public-facing thing with my name on it.
Me: "Do you use social media?"
Them: "NO! Social media is so toxic!"
Me: "You mentioned earlier that you are trying to get a job in X field, correct?"
Them: "Yes, that's true"
Me: "Have you found the relevant sub-Reddit, part of Twitter etc where people in that field hang out and/or share ideas?"
Them: "Well, no."
Me: "So how about this: first find the online place where those people hang out. Second, why don't you write up a blog post or summary of something you've done in the field and post it there. If you haven't done something IN the field, then maybe talk about how you learned about the field or what you find interesting about it etc. Then post that in the sub-Reddit etc."
<few weeks go by>
Them: "I followed your advice and someone from a firm in the field I'm interested saw it, read it, commented on it and reached about having a conversation."
Me: "Excellent! I always say that the lifetime marginal benefit of going from zero to one social media post about you describing/writing about your preferred industry is ENORMOUS"
(We usually move on to another topic with the mentee after this)
Prior to social media, the only way you could do this was to do one of the following:
- go to college in that field
- hangout, physically, where the folks you wanted to interact with were
- physically send letters to people with your article/summary idea
- etc
I feel like a lot of folks forget this and are blinded by the downsides of social media (which, to be fair, there are many)
Currently its infestation of for-profit content that got even worse with generative AI and curated through for-profit algorithms that drain our life for attention.
However, if you pay close attention to the non-advertiser friendly content and content that AI refuses to generate(which is mostly extremist left and right BS), you will see that there's a sustainable path for content that is not discovered and created the way it is now.
Yes, currently the only organic content is the extremist content. Yes, those de-platformed people actually didn't go away. They create authentic high quality Bull Shit, have audience that care and they are doing just fine. Which makes me believe that there must be a way for non-crazy, non-racist, non-extremist people for once again have authentic high quality content.
Interestingly, when Erdogan of Turkey cornered the mainstream media and deplatformed the non-complying journalists those journalists also adopted new ways. For many years, the advertisement on those channels were laughing stock. It was mostly hair removal cream and ideology oriented books but they survived anyway and the Erdogan acquired media lost steam as it wasn't authentic anymore and those small channels and social media platforms became mainstream. To the point that he is now once again trying to destroy them as his media is no good to push his narrative.
So yes, content is king and nature finds its way.
Social Media is fast food. The masses will consume it to their death...
The rest of the population is bifurcating. The only people who will remain on Social Media will be poor, uneducated and the stupid. Not that different than the people who eat fast food, often.