Today's blog entry hones in on the perils of scrolling. Bluesky has been my central mode of receiving information - too much informaton - since the end of 2024. Before that, it was Twitter, which later became X. I've been a user of these services for at least five years. A late-comer to microblogging, I was hopelessly sucked into its vortex in 2019 at the latest (I can't remember exactly when I joined). There was no looking back after that.
I found Old Twitter useful, insightful on topics I cared about and with the latest hubbub and discourse on politics and current events. It felt like I was a step ahead of the regular news; that I always had my finger on the pulse of of the ~real~ news, what was actually happening or what would happen. This sounds pretty arrogant and crazed as I type it out. I guess that has somewhat continued to Bluesky. X became toxic soon after M*sk's takeover. Right wing trolls were amplified. He was clearly using it to promote Tr*mp's interests and electoral chances. It was an oligarchic propaganda machine. A rag. This was apparent early on.
I tried for months to get over to Mastodon or Bluesky. Mastodon never really took off. Bluesky was invite-only. The people I followed itched for a platform free of M*sk's clutches. Bluesky eventually opened up to the public. Some catalyst spurred a mass of people over to the site, but I can't recall what it was. Might just have been the election. Ever since, I've been hooked on Bluesky and this past Fall took measures to wean myself off of it. That included deleting the app and my account. The dopamine pull I get from hitting "refresh" is too magnetic. Even now, I have several account names memorized that I follow.
Needless to say, it's been a struggle to distance myself from the endless scroll and conversation. I plainly don't believe it is the best way to receive information. But these are unusual times. Our information environments are rapidly changing. There are serious questions about the trust we place in traditional media sources, as oligarchs and powerful interests snatch them up. Hearing from individuals directly can give a sense of organic, honest thought, removed from biased news-brokers.
The trouble is, no social media platform can be fully trusted either. Who knows what the site's algoritm encourages us to do. What masses of people online promote, etc. And this leads me to conspiratorial thinking! It seems reverting to reading the NY Times and other big outlets with a judicious eye may be the wisest choice after all.
This leaves me wondering what an ideal social media platform looks like? There are clearly benefits in my view. Organic discussion, a town square, sharing interests, curiosities, and educating each other. Sharing new ideas. It can be fun! But society's guardrails are off, and we are discovering the dangerous outerboundaries. I hope in the future, when we have the chance to make so many parts of society better, social media regulation is part of that. Maybe there's room for a public platform in the market.