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I write this post at a strange time in modern history.
Six years ago, when I dusted off my long-dormant Twitter account to socialise with other like-minded individuals on "freak shit" like anime and rhythm games, I thought the current landscape of the internet was unbreakable. Sure, old services like IRC and Geocities still existed in some capacity, only housing the most freaky of freaks, but there's no way Twitter would cease to be, right?
I mean, there's just no way! It'd take a global pandemic for things to go... wrong...
Alas, we are now here. In what feels like several misguided leaps of faith, Elon Musk has managed to alienate virtually everybody - not only from any goodwill he manifested on his part, but from each other, as well. Many of my friends and associates are either looking for, or have found an alternative, to this sinking ship, but many of them feel derivative of what makes Twitter perfect. It's not the same. It's like playing a bunch of mill cards in Tearlaments for your effects because all the names are limited. It's not the same...
I'm not a fan of decentralised social media networks like Mastodon. They often feel very similar to subreddits - a fiefdom run by the peasantry, often times looking for the next figure to call a despot and eat their faces off. It's a strong comparison, but when you tie it together with the idea that these services often feel very unintuitive at first glance, it perplexes me. Perhaps I am more resistant to change than I believed. BlueSky is no less appealing, being what is effectively worse Twitter but with a... sliding scale of slurs filter??? Awesome, now I can choose whether I want to see people saying the worst shit imaginable! Great website design. Fantastic. And let's not get started on Threads. Sure. I want to sell my soul to Zuckerberg, because the smell on this side of the pond is any more appealing.
My optimism for the internet in its current state isn't very high. Twitter was a melting pot for different groups, speaking different languages, to join together in an almost chaotic kind of harmony, talking about god-knows-what and occasionally getting into fights with people who don't understand the meaning of nuance. And y'know what? That was okay. We didn't need to constantly innovate on the wheel, just because someone with an astounding lack of self-confidence didn't want to get owned for his incompetence anymore. I'll miss the ease of access that Twitter allowed for someone like me. Being able to shout into the void about virtually anything was neat, but I don't think we'll see any similar experiences for a decent while.
Losing that kind of ability to express pretty much anything off the top of one's head, while reserving the actual thoughts for avenues like this, hurts me a fair amount. No longer do I have a remotely convenient avenue to tell people "hey, I uploaded a new Youtube video y'all might like, check it out!" outside of individually messaging every single friend of interest. That might become annoying, VERY quickly. I don't have interest in babysitting several dozens of people who should know better, so Discord is out of the picture. For those who rely on marketing themselves and their individual skills, having Twitter severely gutted several times and weaponised against you is frustrating. But there's no other alternative that does almost the same thing, and that's a real bummer.
That leaves the question of where I'm heading.
You can probably tell I don't have too much faith in these current alternatives in their proposed state, so that's off the table. Honestly, I'm satisfied keeping up this blog for now. I have a lot on my mind to speak about, and with there being no other place to do that on the same scale, it might be time to post more. I'll still make Youtube videos, but other than that, I think it's time to take a step backwards from social media. I've had my fill, and to say it was appetising is... a bit of a lie.
My other socials are here. If you want them, now's a better time than never.
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@novalaxia
Twitch: www.twitch.tv/schwarzearclight
Patreon: www.patreon.com/Novalaxia
I'll see you in hell, Web 3.0. Eternal September is over.
[the world ends now]
Six years ago, when I dusted off my long-dormant Twitter account to socialise with other like-minded individuals on "freak shit" like anime and rhythm games, I thought the current landscape of the internet was unbreakable. Sure, old services like IRC and Geocities still existed in some capacity, only housing the most freaky of freaks, but there's no way Twitter would cease to be, right?
I mean, there's just no way! It'd take a global pandemic for things to go... wrong...
Alas, we are now here. In what feels like several misguided leaps of faith, Elon Musk has managed to alienate virtually everybody - not only from any goodwill he manifested on his part, but from each other, as well. Many of my friends and associates are either looking for, or have found an alternative, to this sinking ship, but many of them feel derivative of what makes Twitter perfect. It's not the same. It's like playing a bunch of mill cards in Tearlaments for your effects because all the names are limited. It's not the same...
I'm not a fan of decentralised social media networks like Mastodon. They often feel very similar to subreddits - a fiefdom run by the peasantry, often times looking for the next figure to call a despot and eat their faces off. It's a strong comparison, but when you tie it together with the idea that these services often feel very unintuitive at first glance, it perplexes me. Perhaps I am more resistant to change than I believed. BlueSky is no less appealing, being what is effectively worse Twitter but with a... sliding scale of slurs filter??? Awesome, now I can choose whether I want to see people saying the worst shit imaginable! Great website design. Fantastic. And let's not get started on Threads. Sure. I want to sell my soul to Zuckerberg, because the smell on this side of the pond is any more appealing.
My optimism for the internet in its current state isn't very high. Twitter was a melting pot for different groups, speaking different languages, to join together in an almost chaotic kind of harmony, talking about god-knows-what and occasionally getting into fights with people who don't understand the meaning of nuance. And y'know what? That was okay. We didn't need to constantly innovate on the wheel, just because someone with an astounding lack of self-confidence didn't want to get owned for his incompetence anymore. I'll miss the ease of access that Twitter allowed for someone like me. Being able to shout into the void about virtually anything was neat, but I don't think we'll see any similar experiences for a decent while.
Losing that kind of ability to express pretty much anything off the top of one's head, while reserving the actual thoughts for avenues like this, hurts me a fair amount. No longer do I have a remotely convenient avenue to tell people "hey, I uploaded a new Youtube video y'all might like, check it out!" outside of individually messaging every single friend of interest. That might become annoying, VERY quickly. I don't have interest in babysitting several dozens of people who should know better, so Discord is out of the picture. For those who rely on marketing themselves and their individual skills, having Twitter severely gutted several times and weaponised against you is frustrating. But there's no other alternative that does almost the same thing, and that's a real bummer.
That leaves the question of where I'm heading.
You can probably tell I don't have too much faith in these current alternatives in their proposed state, so that's off the table. Honestly, I'm satisfied keeping up this blog for now. I have a lot on my mind to speak about, and with there being no other place to do that on the same scale, it might be time to post more. I'll still make Youtube videos, but other than that, I think it's time to take a step backwards from social media. I've had my fill, and to say it was appetising is... a bit of a lie.
My other socials are here. If you want them, now's a better time than never.
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@novalaxia
Twitch: www.twitch.tv/schwarzearclight
Patreon: www.patreon.com/Novalaxia
I'll see you in hell, Web 3.0. Eternal September is over.
[the world ends now]
