This piece, from the end of today’s edition of John Naughton’s thrice-weekly Memex 1.1 newsletter, echoes what I’ve thought about social media generally… for some, it really is a habit, an addiction. I know that’s the main reason why I cut ties with just about all social media. Micro.blog is the closest I’ll go to that stuff nowadays, otherwise I stick to RSS feeds in NewsBlur.
I’ve been on Bluesky for a few months, largely because I abhor Musk’s megaphone. In practice, you get what it promises on the tin — a feed produced by people you follow rather than a farrago that’s algorithmically curated to increase the profits of the platform you’re on.
And it’s fine — but it’s still an attention-sink. Ethically, it’s properly social-media rather than the anti-social media of X, Threads, Instagram, et al. But life is short and I hate scrolling. Result: I now look in on my feed only now and then. And I still can’t understand how so many people appear to be on it all the time: how do they get any work done?