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In 2025, No One Can Hear You Blog

    Seriously outdated... hopelessly anachronistic... totally obsolete...
That's how I expect most people would assess text-based blogs in this day and age. We have social media sites that aggregate, sort, and present you with a constant stream of content, following the latest, up-to-the-second trends. As long as you're savvy to the ever-changing preferences of both the audience and the advertisers, you stand to gain a rapidly rising following, driving lucrative ad revenue, and opening doors to all sorts of brand deals.
    Even if your aspirations aren't so lofty, you can still manage to engage with plenty of like-minded people, who share your same interests, down to the micro-sphere. The modern social media sites have been honed by about two decades of Internet usage, crafting them into their most convenient and addictive forms to date.
    Meta, Twitter, TikTok, Snapchat, Reddit, YouTube (and maybe a few others that I've missed) have successfully usurped personal websites, blogs, chatrooms, and forums to become the dominant way of interacting, not just with other people, but with the Internet as a whole. These platforms not only added new people to the habit of going online, but also sucked nearly all the existing users out of the legacy sites.
    Neocities (where this blog is hosted!) hosts over 1 million sites, as of August 2025. Compare that to Tik Tok's 1.59 billion active users. I know this really isn't the most equivalent comparison, but it illustrates my point well enough: the extreme majority of people online are on the modern social media sites, not on personal sites.

Being the Loudest Isn't the Point

    One of the major metrics for success on modern social media posts is how far your message has gone, how many views, how many likes, how many retweets. Being heard is often the point there.
    Not to be such an old fogey, but when I was young, my Internet usage was mostly about listening. I explored different sites to see what was happening, to learn new things (both useful and useless), and to find out what others were saying. I commented on forum posts to join in on a conversation, not to read a vapid reply like, "Thanks for the follow <3"
    Here, this blog is all about my thoughts. Views, likes, and followers aren't tracked. There's no comment box (although maybe that'll change someday), so this really is just me ranting into the void. And I know that's antithetical to the whole idea of a "conversation," but to pull back the curtain a bit, this site is much more about learning website building than anything else, right now. Again, that could change in the future (and change is good!), but it's really nice to just write down my thoughts, even if nobody else reads them.
    It has been an illucidating experience to put out posts without worrying about optimizing them, not having to append a long list of tags or feeling obligated to join in the latest trends. It's really brought attention to how ridiculous that behavior is! I'd much rather spend time editing photos rather than my online self.

Resisting the Modern Internet

    I'm sick of being marketed to, influenced, data-harvested, and spoon-fed by an algorithm. I want to make my own choices about what I watch and read. Advertisers have much too much sway over what appears in users' feeds. It's expected that concessions have to be made because a platform is free (lame corporatist take), but if the experience is so hostile, why stay?
    Major Internet-based companies have us convinced that constant ads, casual surveillence, and aggressive paywalls are just the way the Internet works. The truth is that it doesn't have to work that way, and it did not always work that way!
    You can decouple from the abysmal experience of major Internet platforms. There are plenty of wonderful alternatives that will offer a much more pleasing time. Not only do these alternatives offer a way to have more control and actual ownership over what you choose to engage with (and it is you making that choice), but they facilitate deeper interaction with those activities. Here's a quick look at some examples:

    Most of these alternatives can be bought used for dirt cheap, and browsing for used books and music is much more fun than looking on Amazon or Spotify! And, they encourage deeper interactions, though with fewer people. Quality over quantity.
    But let's look at an argument for quantity. By breaking out each task into its own dedicated device, we can greatly increase the quality of those actvities.

Form Affects Function

    Quite frankly, smartphones suck. Here's the case for deconsolidation . While a modern marvel of miniaturization and convenience, smartphones offer a poorer interface and quality for just about each device they try to subsume. A blanket statement can be said about each device: by deconsolidating devices, you reduce distraction. You won't be interrupted by notifications while trying to take a photo or listen to a song, and you won't be tempted to divide your attention between multiple tasks (the myth of multi-tasking may be a topic for a later date).
    Here's a brief look at each aspect of a smartphone's capabilities, and how it would be better performed by a discrete piece of hardware:

    Photos

    Taking photos on a dedicated camera, even a simple, pocketable point-and-shoot, holds many advantages over using a smartphone's camera. Aside from the fact that your view will never be obstructed by any intrusive push-notifications, you have easier access to controls (with dedicated physical dials and buttons), and a camera will have its own dedicated, easily expandable storage media (technically, a roll of film counts as storage too). If you really want to, you can also use something much higher quality (both in sensor and glass), allowing you to take sharper, higher resolution, lower noise photos with better color rendition and the ability to play with depth of field, shutter speed, and better flashes.
    I'll resist getting too into the weeds on cameras and photography here, but pulling out just a cheap disposable camera during a casual gathering is great fun, where the act of documenting becomes just as exciting as the actual activity being documented.
    But also, print your photos (even your smartphone photos)! Take them off of the screen and give them form in the real world! I really enjoy using a Canon Selphy printer. This is a compact dye-sublimation printer that produces excellent quality 4x6 prints. These are great for pinning on your wall or framing , gifting to friends and family, and storing in an album (not trying to sound like an ad, but any cheap photo printer is a great way to experience your photos).

    Music

    The advantages here are twofold, audio quality and media ownership. Audio quality can be increased by better headphones/speakers, as well as a better amplifier and DAC. I'm no expert, so I suggest you do further research in choosing a good headphone/speaker and amp/DAC combo to suit your needs. However, it's very easy to find a selection that is both affordable and miles better than what's in just about any smartphone.
    The ownership question is a bit easier to explain without any specialized knowledge. Whether it be physical or digital media, purchasing and building your own collection will always be better than relying on streaming services. One-time purchases, no ads, no risk of favorites disappearing (outside of theft), and greater selection are all benefits to owning your own media. Even if you decide to stick with digital (lossless FLAC files are a higher quality alternative to MP3's), I'd still recommend a dedicated music player because it is more likely to have a better amp/DAC, and again, it will have its own, dedicated storage that can be expanded if needed.
    Lastly, the experience of listening to a cohesive album (or even a playlist), without any interruptions or the temptation to scroll on other apps, is a much more engaging experience that will show you how special music can be!

Movies

    Many of the same points for music can also be made for movies. It's always better to own your media outright, rather than "lease" it under obfuscated terms and conditions. Again, the selection is also better when searching old, physical media, as a lot of excellent TV shows and movies did not make it to (or have since been taken off of) digital streaming services. And even when a piece of media is hosted on a digital platform, it can be edited and presented in a way that significantly changes the aesthetics, messaging, and intent. One of the most well known examples is the original trilogy of Star Wars movies, now littered with retcons and ill-advised changes, while the last official release of the truly original (and easily better) version was on laserdisc.
    And of course, the lack of advertising (you can pay for Hulu and still get ads!?) is a huge boon! Not having to deal with loading, or slow Internet down-rezzing the picture, is also a huge plus. Again, eliminating these issues helps heighten your immersion and engagement, allowing you to more critically interact with a piece of media.

    Internet

    Especially if you're interested in personal sites, "indie web", or "small Internet," you will be much better served by browsing on a desktop or laptop computer, since a lot of these sites are not optimized for mobile browsers. Things might get strangely formatted or just not work at all on a smartphone. Less of a practical argument, though, is that browsing the Internet on a computer encourages more intentionality. That is to say, instead of nonchalantly scrolling through a feed, as if on auto-pilot, you are more likely to take an active role in what you're seeing, seaching things out, following trails, and usually visiting more than one site during a session. As well as breaking up Internet browsing into sessions, with a start and an end, rather than a constant drip-feed.
    I don't want to come off as some mental health quack, but I really do believe that book-ending browsing sessions can help avoid the anxiety a lot of people feel through social media platforms and doom-scrolling. I also think the small, constant dopamine hits from endless-scrolling style feeds can also worsen depression and encourage a sort of dependency, akin to substance abuse. Therefore, not only am I promoting the use of standalone computers for Internet browsing, but also changing which sites you browse and visit. If you're worried about losing touch with your friends and family, give them a call, meet them in person, text, email, or even write them a letter. These large social media platforms not only depend on a critical-mass userbase to remain relevant, but they also perpetuate the false narrative that they're an essential service for making and maintaining social contacts. As has been said of many other things, they need us more than we need them.

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