So long and thanks for all the fish
I started this blog as a way for me to ween myself off social media. This was my intention from when I started #100DaysToOffload after reading this post by Kev. I'm cutting the 100 days short and quitting Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc, starting now.
I'd still love to stay in touch, but directly via phone or email.
If we're close enough, you either have my number or know someone with my number, get it. Show them this, it's consent to share my number with you.
If you don't, you can reach me at yo [(at)] tychi [(dot)] me.
I'm going to stick around on the Fediverse. You can find me @tychi@fosstodon.org until I get my own Pleroma instance running.
I'm also going to keep blogging here. Figure out what RSS is and why Google tried to kill it.
Netiquette
If you've never heard this term, look it up.
Advertising
If it's free, you're the product.
Gamification
It's manipulation, but it's fun!
Know Your Risk
TikTok being banned is a joke. The data the app collects is alarming, but other apps do the same, if not more. The only problem is it's a Chinese product and not a US one.
Own Your Data
If you've said, “I'd love to use X, but Y has all my Z already,” you don't own your data.
Free and Open Source Software
Software is a human right. Always have had this position and I always will.
Trust
As someone that worked on trying to solve digital identity for four years, the only answer is to own your own domain and control your own content.
Everything else is a farce.
Destiny
When something stops being profitable for a company, it'll be deleted. It happened with MySpace and it was pitched as an accident. There was absolutely a meeting where they said, “If we delete everything before 2016, we'll save $$$/month.”
If you're using social media like a scrapbook, remember it's ephemeral.
Engagement
When the social networks flipped from a linear timeline to an algorithmically generated one, they decided which of your friends could be digitally sacrificed.
Outrage
Doomscrolling. I'm tired of the first thing I do when I wake up is check Facebook or Twitter because something terrible happened in the 6 hours I was sleeping.
Trolls
Chaotic Evil personified.
Bots
Synthetic perspectives.
Shills
Corporate PR disguised as your average Joe.
De-platforming
Also a joke. The internet is wide, vast, and open. If a platform doesn't want you, go find somewhere else to be and stop whining about it.
Free Cancellation
I'm tired of living in the past, trying to atone for whatever thoughtcrime I committed half a lifetime ago. I've deleted very few things over the years, since I believe social media to be a really fascinating experiment.
Indulge yourself, since these will eventually fade with time, if they haven't already. Won't be of my accord though.
https://myspace.com/discodonut/
https://l17.livejournal.com/
https://twitter.com/tylerchilds
https://tylerchilds.blogspot.com/
https://reddit.com/tylerchilds
https://reddit.com/chilols
https://www.youtube.com/c/TylerChilds/
https://medium.com/@tylerchilds
https://instagram.com/tylerchilds
https://facebook.com/thetylerchilds
https://github.com/tylerchilds
https://linkedin.com/in/tylerchilds
https://tylerchilds.com
Who I was is not who I am.
Digital Detox
I told Victoria yesterday I have a digital addiction. I've known for a while and I knew it'd get worse, but I needed to set myself up to get off of it.
Having more control over my hardware and software has been a challenge to sink back into after a decade of gradually giving up my vigilance for convenience.
The real shift I'm making in my life is changing from a push lifestyle to a pull lifestyle. Social media is engineered for engagement. Notifications. Alerts. Pings.
In the simplest possible terms, I'm looking for my digital life to more closely resemble an answering machine than a pager.
Red Flags
The last lesson I'll impart onto you before I go. I used to be casually into conspiracy theories. Reddit was my go to place to find out about Avril Lavigne being replaced by Melissa Vandella. But slowly the /r/conspiracy subreddit got more political than are UFOs real and was 9/11 an inside job?
Pizzagate happened and the floodgates were thrown open. Instead of well-researched, but still misguided posts of historical events or clearly ludicrous speculations, everything switched to real time.
The sub became a hub for current events and not investigations into the past. This was when I bowed out from my Reddit addiction.
Slowly disconnecting from Reddit, I found how utterly toxic it was. I always justified it as “not as bad as 4chan,” but there are still a lot of very unhealthy ideologies there. Any given day might not be terrible, but our minds go through the death of a thousand cuts with whatever we subject ourselves to.
Finally, I realized how things just weren't real. When you first post into a new community, you put yourself out there. You get downvoted. You adapt. You get downvoted less. You adapt. You get upvoted. You get hooked. You conformed and you lost yourself. In this way, I disassociated from reality.
All social media functions this way. The healthiest thing you can do is not look into your own comment section. Have friends, let them challenge you, but that random hater does. not. matter.
The Timeline
I started out with AOL and AIM, because I was a child and IRC was totally not on my radar.
I created a Subprofile and my away messages were hilarious indications that I will bbl. We used to just type the number 6 to indicate a parent was entering the room and I was closing the chat window and I'd message again once it was clear.
I created a MySpace to listen to music and connect with friends. My LiveJournal was an outlet for me to express my emo rage. Facebook was for college students and I waited until I was enrolled before joining on the principle that's what the community was founded for.
Twitter was my fleeting thoughts. The things you'd text a friend to start a conversation without saying, “How are you doing today, pal?” I quit for a while because something changed. Then I came back and it was all self-promotion and constant rage. I joined in for a bit. I haven't posted for 72 days now, besides pushing this blog. I took a break at the end of 2019 for a month and it felt great. I'm looking to just do that for good now.
I joined reddit for the memes. Instagram had premium photographic content. LinkedIn gave me a sense of progress and ambition for my career, despite myself never actually benefiting from it.
GitHub was my decentralized hope of a future for sharing code and then Microsoft bought them. And this was when I knew I couldn't trust any software I couldn't bend to my will instead of the other way around.
Closure
I'd always imagined digging through my old posts to show progress of some sort. I'm at that age where I just don't care.
I'm not going to download your app. I'm not going to sign up for your new social network.
I'm controlling my own future from here on out. If you want to learn more, talk to me about it.
Decentralization is the future and my future starts today.