After being Extremely Online for 20 years (starting with Neopets and blogs/forums I was definitely too young for), I've been intentionally moving away from social media in particular but the internet in general because it's no longer as fun and informative as it once was. I used to be really involved in actual mutual aid, food recovery, and activism, until I got discouraged and burnt out from the moral purity standards /TikTok-ification of online slacktivism invading IRL spaces. The past few years I've been keeping to myself and reading lots of the books I didn't have time for when I was focused on surviving. I kept getting told I hadn't done "the work" of reading theory, even while I was loading food into my car to take to soup kitchens in between classes and 2 jobs. The answer to making these real-world communities work is to not only move community building increasingly into the real world, but to also leave the divisive hot takes in the social media sphere. If someone shows up and is willing to help out, we need to learn to work past differences and accept that people in the real world are not going to match the algorithmic sameness fed to us in our online bubbles.
I realized just a few days ago, one of my 2025 New Year's resolutions is to start moving away from social media and the Internet, which is addictive, especially if you're a bit of an introvert. One can still find good content but the "good content" to noise ratio has gotten much worse.
Luckily, one can find many other things to do in life then spend hours on end with social media.
These things have been bouncing around my head for a while lately. I was listening to a podcast with Butch Walker and the way that he talked about MySpace, and the music- with the top 8 we had there. It was a time of internet community, centered around things we could collectively like- music. It helped the industry, it helped creatives, it was kind of magical. Now it’s just dead algorithms, ads, bots, and rage farming. And yeah. I agree it’s affecting who we are.
I reflect on MySpace often. I know I felt I spent too much time on it at the time; however, I only had access to it when on the computer—not all times on a little light-up brick I kept in my pocket!
I know platforms were slowly getting enshittified over the years, but it feels like they dove off a cliff in the past year or so. I haven't been back to Twitter in over a year now so I can't speak to it, but the random pages on Facebook seemed to just go crazy in the past year or so. I mostly pop on and off pretty quickly now. I think the thing I miss the most in the enshittification is the loss of what Instagram was. I could find book reviews, examples of knitting and sewing projects made by a wide variety of people, flower arranging, woodworking, a hike in an interesting spot I didn't know about, etc. Done well, social media can inspire and inform us instead of ensnare us, but I guess inspiring people doesn't earn them money.
The loss of Instagram is a hard one for me as well. I use to get info about different countries and I’d save the beautiful photos or reviews of restaurants as ideas for future visits but now everything is pushed on you to consume celeb culture and ‘stuff’, so many ads for ‘stuff’ I can’t even see posts from people I actually know and care about anymore because the majority of my feed is now ads and suggestions. I’ve given up.
Even YouTube is going down the sewer drain. I remember when I used to be able to let it run on auto while I worked. Learned a ton about philosophy, history, global events. Now the algorithm pushes so much AI spam and extreme clickbait I can no longer use it for general knowledge. Now I really only use it to search for specific how-to videos. A damn shame.
I guess I didn't even notice that. I typically search very specific things on it...exercise videos, sewing related stuff, etc. But now that you mention it I have noticed a lot of clickbait sort of things showing up in the home feed.
Excellent piece. I think there's another unexplored angle in the social media "platform decay" process, upon which I touched in a screed in 2023 https://gunnarmiller.substack.com/p/dead-sea-scrolling ; how being utterly ignored, both by fellow users *and* the platforms themselves, has been normalized:
"Who are you addressing when you write a type a comment on newspaper piece shared on social media? The author? The paper? Other readers? Yourself? But there’s already a comment section on the newspaper’s website, and each time the newspaper re-posts the article to social media, there’s yet another brand new comment section that no one will read. Everything gets remorselessly pushed down the stack to languish on some hard drive in a data center that uses more electricity than the town in which you grew up. There’s no one on the other side from whom can realistically expect any sort of thoughtful reply in a timely fashion. And there’s no real engagement: Report a clearly fake spammy profile on Facebook? Crickets chirping. Call someone out for outright falsehoods or fake information? Nothing. Point out a grammar mistake or misspelling? Zilch. Being utterly ignored every day isn’t a great feeling. It’s captured well in the play “Death of a Salesman” when Linda Loman despairs regarding her sad sack husband Willy:
“I don’t say he’s a great man. Willy Loman never made a lot of money. His name was never in the paper. He’s not the finest character that ever lived. But he’s a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid. He’s not to be allowed to fall into his grave like an old dog. Attention, attention must be finally paid to such a person.”
Well, no one’s paying attention. We’re relentlessly asked to write Amazon.com product reviews that never get read, feedback on whether or not we’re “enjoying” an app, TripAdvisor and Google Maps hagiographies on the outside chance the proprietors of the establishment comp you a room or a meal someday, and ÜberCab or AirBnB ratings that can only be 5-star or the driver or owner will badger you that you’re destroying their livelihoods."
Something recently shifted in my Facebook feed, which over the course of 15 years I had carefully (ruthlessly?) curated into something I enjoyed ... it has become stuffed full of unsolicited posts. Despite my spending the past several weeks hiding and unliking all this new slop, the algorithm just keeps relentlessly pushing the same things over and over. I have yet to have *one* single clearly fake profile I've reported removed, including some with links to pornographic images. This sets a tone of these megacap social media companies ignoring people, social mores, and even laws, which clearly *can't* be good for society.
Yeah I noticed the algorithm was rigged when I kept getting relentless Sabrina Carpenter recs and I’ve never liked commented on or listed to her music in the past.
I spend more time blocking content than ever before. Truly not a great experience anymore. Twitter is pretty much a useless swamp. I go there basically to see if there is info on GAZA, COVID or H5N1 as government is sure not giving out any information.
“I’ve long thought that Brave New World was one of the most important dystopian novels, in large part because it focuses on how the masses will be controlled with pleasure more than punishment.”
This is the 2nd time in the past couple of days someone has mentioned Brave New World, so I think I have to finally read it.
I’ve been off the apps (Substack app too) for the last couple of weeks, and it is WILD how much I realized it hijacks my attention. I’m a grown adult too!
I logged into instagram recently for the first time in a long while. And it struck me how much more slop there is. Your article was extremely timely and very gratifying to read. I think we need our own platforms.
I woke up with many of these thoughts this morning. I have tried to post information like the doomsday clock on Facebook and it gets no attention. I post a picture of my Granddaughters and I get a ton. But I want a future for my granddaughters. Thank you for writing this. I appreciate Substack. I’ll post it on facebook, but you know, it won’t get noticed.
Just be careful with posting your granddaughters, there are a lot of bad actors scraping profiles with photos of children and making some horrific AI deep fakes for the dark web.
I have increasingly lessened my social media usage since 2018 when I deleted Facebook. In November, I had a pain flare up which also sparked my anxiety disorder, so I spent more time on Twitter, created BlueSky, and I even created an Instagram account again after deleting it in 2021. I deleted my Instagram the next day, and I decided to go cold turkey this year, 2025. Now, I slowly reduced my addiction to nothing over the past three years, so I’m luckily feeling fine, but I feel disconnected politically. In all honesty, this Substack is the reason I felt okay deleting everything. I’m hoping to find more great writers like Joshua (though I’m sorry I depend on your semi-addiction, Joshua!).
I know there are many folks like me and so many of us know and feel this shift. One of my great radical pals that does organizing in my home of Minneapolis is off social media and they are present and engaged. I hope to keep learning from them, and to engage here on Substack. I have hope we can be free from what poet Aureille Marie says—“it’s not that the state wants us to be distracted; they want us to be disregulated.”
I've recently realized just how negative chronic social media usage has been for my mental health. It has completely altered the way my brain functions, the way I process emotions, and the way that I interact with others. This article helped me to see that unplugging is not just beneficial for my health, it can also be a radical act. Thank you for this.
Thanks for this JP, & for all the links! We do this together 🤜💥🤛
In some countries when you get a new SIM card, for example, you are automatically signed in to FB by that provider. They have a deal set up where they benefit each other at your / the users expense. You have no choice. Second to this, in places like Australia, some data providers have high rates for texting/ calling & they make FB a data free platform to use, so ppl use it because it’s free.
Much of the statistics say Xbillion ppl use FB, but I genuinely wonder how many ppl would still be on there if they were relieved of the other non-consensual factors. There’s also so much more choice in America.
On another annoying social media note, I and many colleagues have had multiple impersonation accounts created on IG / FB- with our names, our photos, our work & all been reported but denied by meta. They know about ALLLLLL of this & they don’t care. Our frustration creates engagement. Sick, right!?
If ppl are looking for some tips to ween yourself off - I delete the app after every use. It removes the visual stimulation that triggers the addiction & requires you to actively download again to use. Easily done, but you have a time-waiting period to allow your brain chemistry to catch yourself before being hijacked. I am on there much less & have way more creative energy & sleep better!
I also turn off notifications. It’s a no-brained but plenty of ppl still have them on. I was at a body work appointment the other day & the practitioner was checking his weather app notifications!!! We’ve normalised this 🤯
I don’t know that we can un-shit social media when it’s owned & run by who it is, but I fully support smart ppl creating a user run / user benefited platform/s.
There's so much to unpack with this wonderful post. First, thanks for giving me a word for this garbage on social: "enshitification". Wow! 👍 Now I'll be trying to spot bots too. I don't understand the point of bots unless they're part of educating the AI.
That's my 2nd point, AI people are working hard to educate it at our expense. I'm happy it's stupid now, but the more they sneak it into our interactions the better it'll get. Years ago I culled my social group to actual humans I know. It's worked well because we still have our connections and community. I'm constantly cutting out my lists and follows to intelligent real people and information. It help stop the slop.
Lastly, please be mindful of what you post, repost, like and comment on. We're being monitored now but soon it will be much worse. The tech bros are looking to become tech police. Dystopia is knocking on the door. Live offline more, rethink how you use social (DMs and direct communication) It's not paranoia, it's reality. Thanks for the great post.
After being Extremely Online for 20 years (starting with Neopets and blogs/forums I was definitely too young for), I've been intentionally moving away from social media in particular but the internet in general because it's no longer as fun and informative as it once was. I used to be really involved in actual mutual aid, food recovery, and activism, until I got discouraged and burnt out from the moral purity standards /TikTok-ification of online slacktivism invading IRL spaces. The past few years I've been keeping to myself and reading lots of the books I didn't have time for when I was focused on surviving. I kept getting told I hadn't done "the work" of reading theory, even while I was loading food into my car to take to soup kitchens in between classes and 2 jobs. The answer to making these real-world communities work is to not only move community building increasingly into the real world, but to also leave the divisive hot takes in the social media sphere. If someone shows up and is willing to help out, we need to learn to work past differences and accept that people in the real world are not going to match the algorithmic sameness fed to us in our online bubbles.
The moral purity is something I find really difficult about online spaces. You’ve hit the nail on the head completely!
I realized just a few days ago, one of my 2025 New Year's resolutions is to start moving away from social media and the Internet, which is addictive, especially if you're a bit of an introvert. One can still find good content but the "good content" to noise ratio has gotten much worse.
Luckily, one can find many other things to do in life then spend hours on end with social media.
These things have been bouncing around my head for a while lately. I was listening to a podcast with Butch Walker and the way that he talked about MySpace, and the music- with the top 8 we had there. It was a time of internet community, centered around things we could collectively like- music. It helped the industry, it helped creatives, it was kind of magical. Now it’s just dead algorithms, ads, bots, and rage farming. And yeah. I agree it’s affecting who we are.
Ironically - My space died when Rupert Murdoch bought it……figures.
I reflect on MySpace often. I know I felt I spent too much time on it at the time; however, I only had access to it when on the computer—not all times on a little light-up brick I kept in my pocket!
So very true about the smartphone too
I think everyone needs to reads this piece.
Thanks for the book recommendation in Brave New World.
Keep writing!
I know platforms were slowly getting enshittified over the years, but it feels like they dove off a cliff in the past year or so. I haven't been back to Twitter in over a year now so I can't speak to it, but the random pages on Facebook seemed to just go crazy in the past year or so. I mostly pop on and off pretty quickly now. I think the thing I miss the most in the enshittification is the loss of what Instagram was. I could find book reviews, examples of knitting and sewing projects made by a wide variety of people, flower arranging, woodworking, a hike in an interesting spot I didn't know about, etc. Done well, social media can inspire and inform us instead of ensnare us, but I guess inspiring people doesn't earn them money.
The loss of Instagram is a hard one for me as well. I use to get info about different countries and I’d save the beautiful photos or reviews of restaurants as ideas for future visits but now everything is pushed on you to consume celeb culture and ‘stuff’, so many ads for ‘stuff’ I can’t even see posts from people I actually know and care about anymore because the majority of my feed is now ads and suggestions. I’ve given up.
Even YouTube is going down the sewer drain. I remember when I used to be able to let it run on auto while I worked. Learned a ton about philosophy, history, global events. Now the algorithm pushes so much AI spam and extreme clickbait I can no longer use it for general knowledge. Now I really only use it to search for specific how-to videos. A damn shame.
I guess I didn't even notice that. I typically search very specific things on it...exercise videos, sewing related stuff, etc. But now that you mention it I have noticed a lot of clickbait sort of things showing up in the home feed.
Excellent piece. I think there's another unexplored angle in the social media "platform decay" process, upon which I touched in a screed in 2023 https://gunnarmiller.substack.com/p/dead-sea-scrolling ; how being utterly ignored, both by fellow users *and* the platforms themselves, has been normalized:
"Who are you addressing when you write a type a comment on newspaper piece shared on social media? The author? The paper? Other readers? Yourself? But there’s already a comment section on the newspaper’s website, and each time the newspaper re-posts the article to social media, there’s yet another brand new comment section that no one will read. Everything gets remorselessly pushed down the stack to languish on some hard drive in a data center that uses more electricity than the town in which you grew up. There’s no one on the other side from whom can realistically expect any sort of thoughtful reply in a timely fashion. And there’s no real engagement: Report a clearly fake spammy profile on Facebook? Crickets chirping. Call someone out for outright falsehoods or fake information? Nothing. Point out a grammar mistake or misspelling? Zilch. Being utterly ignored every day isn’t a great feeling. It’s captured well in the play “Death of a Salesman” when Linda Loman despairs regarding her sad sack husband Willy:
“I don’t say he’s a great man. Willy Loman never made a lot of money. His name was never in the paper. He’s not the finest character that ever lived. But he’s a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid. He’s not to be allowed to fall into his grave like an old dog. Attention, attention must be finally paid to such a person.”
Well, no one’s paying attention. We’re relentlessly asked to write Amazon.com product reviews that never get read, feedback on whether or not we’re “enjoying” an app, TripAdvisor and Google Maps hagiographies on the outside chance the proprietors of the establishment comp you a room or a meal someday, and ÜberCab or AirBnB ratings that can only be 5-star or the driver or owner will badger you that you’re destroying their livelihoods."
Something recently shifted in my Facebook feed, which over the course of 15 years I had carefully (ruthlessly?) curated into something I enjoyed ... it has become stuffed full of unsolicited posts. Despite my spending the past several weeks hiding and unliking all this new slop, the algorithm just keeps relentlessly pushing the same things over and over. I have yet to have *one* single clearly fake profile I've reported removed, including some with links to pornographic images. This sets a tone of these megacap social media companies ignoring people, social mores, and even laws, which clearly *can't* be good for society.
I think we’ve just become gears in the machine for the owners and AI. It sucks.
Yeah I noticed the algorithm was rigged when I kept getting relentless Sabrina Carpenter recs and I’ve never liked commented on or listed to her music in the past.
I spend more time blocking content than ever before. Truly not a great experience anymore. Twitter is pretty much a useless swamp. I go there basically to see if there is info on GAZA, COVID or H5N1 as government is sure not giving out any information.
Bluesky has gotten better. I learned of the first H5N1 death today though their new trending tab 😳
It has been getting better. Now to delete my Twitter account.
“I’ve long thought that Brave New World was one of the most important dystopian novels, in large part because it focuses on how the masses will be controlled with pleasure more than punishment.”
This is the 2nd time in the past couple of days someone has mentioned Brave New World, so I think I have to finally read it.
I’ve been off the apps (Substack app too) for the last couple of weeks, and it is WILD how much I realized it hijacks my attention. I’m a grown adult too!
Very nice!
I logged into instagram recently for the first time in a long while. And it struck me how much more slop there is. Your article was extremely timely and very gratifying to read. I think we need our own platforms.
I woke up with many of these thoughts this morning. I have tried to post information like the doomsday clock on Facebook and it gets no attention. I post a picture of my Granddaughters and I get a ton. But I want a future for my granddaughters. Thank you for writing this. I appreciate Substack. I’ll post it on facebook, but you know, it won’t get noticed.
Just be careful with posting your granddaughters, there are a lot of bad actors scraping profiles with photos of children and making some horrific AI deep fakes for the dark web.
I have increasingly lessened my social media usage since 2018 when I deleted Facebook. In November, I had a pain flare up which also sparked my anxiety disorder, so I spent more time on Twitter, created BlueSky, and I even created an Instagram account again after deleting it in 2021. I deleted my Instagram the next day, and I decided to go cold turkey this year, 2025. Now, I slowly reduced my addiction to nothing over the past three years, so I’m luckily feeling fine, but I feel disconnected politically. In all honesty, this Substack is the reason I felt okay deleting everything. I’m hoping to find more great writers like Joshua (though I’m sorry I depend on your semi-addiction, Joshua!).
I know there are many folks like me and so many of us know and feel this shift. One of my great radical pals that does organizing in my home of Minneapolis is off social media and they are present and engaged. I hope to keep learning from them, and to engage here on Substack. I have hope we can be free from what poet Aureille Marie says—“it’s not that the state wants us to be distracted; they want us to be disregulated.”
I've recently realized just how negative chronic social media usage has been for my mental health. It has completely altered the way my brain functions, the way I process emotions, and the way that I interact with others. This article helped me to see that unplugging is not just beneficial for my health, it can also be a radical act. Thank you for this.
Agreed on everything you said. Just gonna add that everybody needs to spend more time playing outside.
Thanks for this JP, & for all the links! We do this together 🤜💥🤛
In some countries when you get a new SIM card, for example, you are automatically signed in to FB by that provider. They have a deal set up where they benefit each other at your / the users expense. You have no choice. Second to this, in places like Australia, some data providers have high rates for texting/ calling & they make FB a data free platform to use, so ppl use it because it’s free.
Much of the statistics say Xbillion ppl use FB, but I genuinely wonder how many ppl would still be on there if they were relieved of the other non-consensual factors. There’s also so much more choice in America.
On another annoying social media note, I and many colleagues have had multiple impersonation accounts created on IG / FB- with our names, our photos, our work & all been reported but denied by meta. They know about ALLLLLL of this & they don’t care. Our frustration creates engagement. Sick, right!?
If ppl are looking for some tips to ween yourself off - I delete the app after every use. It removes the visual stimulation that triggers the addiction & requires you to actively download again to use. Easily done, but you have a time-waiting period to allow your brain chemistry to catch yourself before being hijacked. I am on there much less & have way more creative energy & sleep better!
I also turn off notifications. It’s a no-brained but plenty of ppl still have them on. I was at a body work appointment the other day & the practitioner was checking his weather app notifications!!! We’ve normalised this 🤯
I don’t know that we can un-shit social media when it’s owned & run by who it is, but I fully support smart ppl creating a user run / user benefited platform/s.
There's so much to unpack with this wonderful post. First, thanks for giving me a word for this garbage on social: "enshitification". Wow! 👍 Now I'll be trying to spot bots too. I don't understand the point of bots unless they're part of educating the AI.
That's my 2nd point, AI people are working hard to educate it at our expense. I'm happy it's stupid now, but the more they sneak it into our interactions the better it'll get. Years ago I culled my social group to actual humans I know. It's worked well because we still have our connections and community. I'm constantly cutting out my lists and follows to intelligent real people and information. It help stop the slop.
Lastly, please be mindful of what you post, repost, like and comment on. We're being monitored now but soon it will be much worse. The tech bros are looking to become tech police. Dystopia is knocking on the door. Live offline more, rethink how you use social (DMs and direct communication) It's not paranoia, it's reality. Thanks for the great post.