Essay

Towards a personal online presence

Introduction

So I suppose everyone is writing a manifesto about their internet experience these days. I'm not sure how much new insights I can provide to the discussion of slow internet, a personalized web experience, or the absolvement of the idea of web3 and the current climate on prominent social media platforms. A lot of the following comes from personal experience, though I do aim to provide sources where I can.

The start for me is on my homepage. When in late 2023 the social platforms started having a collective breakdance, I wasn't really a fan of it. It wasn't the main reason for coming to Neocities per se. My biggest irritation has been that, by some sort of unwritten law, I had to break myself into distinct characters with behavior patterns that befitted each specific platform. Tumblr has been my home turf, but going from there to the text-focused snippet site that is Twitter, and have the purely image-based Instagram on the other end, became exhausting.
Instragram was the first to go. My profile there was only made in 2021 and purely out of obligation for a study association thing. That I could not -- read: it wasn't really the norm -- post my art alongside personal stuff because this would not make for a smooth presentation on my profile eventually became the reason I made a separate art page, deleted that, and then put my personal on private and logged out of it everywhere and deleted the app. It's stil there, I simply don't use it.
My life has been way less driven to check that app ever since, and I don't feel like I'm missing anything. Same happened with Snapchat.

Another reason was that, as an outsider, I witnessed people exhibiting behavior in real life that made me very uncomfortable. A coworker who pulled out her phone at every conceivable moment while on the floor to check on really nothing; a family member at a special-event dinner scrolling through social media while others are talking; the lack of interaction and at the same time invading the spaces of others with media playing unobscured or documenting them without permission.
It was jarring! In particular with the people I was in close contact with. I was worried that this would be my impression onto others. Not that it ever got that far, but prevention is better than curing. I didn't want to be someone you could have around but find no way talk to.

So then there was a more conscious approach to how I spend my time online; Something that I can hopefully gather together here.

Minimalism

"Digital Minimalism" is coined in a book of the same title by Cal Newport1. Newport structures the book as both a text with information on the current digital sphere, as well as a guide to break from the traps implemented by some platforms. His method is not as extreme as one might expect with the word minimalist, but still rigorous.
I'd been eyeing it for a while at work. It's got a nice cover, I won't deny that, but also because the content was quite interesting.

Newport

 Going forward, you'll do your best to make these intentional activities the core of your online life -- leaving behind most of the other distracting behaviors that used to fragment your time and snare your attention. The declutter acts as a jarring reset: you come into the process a frazzled maximalist and leave an intentional minimalist.1 - p.xvi

Cal's book is neat if you want more in-depth info behind platform design, algorythms, some psychology and philosphy, but he's very kind to list the steps towards becoming more of a minimalist.

    Technology Rules
    First up there is the need for some groundwork to build from. Cal sets all "new" technology as something to include, but also that this can extend from passive elements (like apps to scroll through), to active tech like video games. As a base rule, he says that all that can be excluded should be optional. Texting is of course a necessity in the current age, but can nontheless be kept to minimal use.
    30-Day Break
    The 30-Day break is something that may seem arbitrary. Why not put it on just a week or two at first? I don't really know. I have to admit that I haven't taken part in this step (yet). It's daunting, yet I think it can really have positive effects on me.
    Reintroduction
    The reintroduction phase is there to get to the part that creates more meaningful use. I can imagine, given the experience I had with removing Instagram, that a 30-day break from multiple platforms can have the same result but much broader. Curious to discuss is how much of a "relapse" can be observed after this declutter period.

Newport has more tips in the book, but they are too spread out to really organize here. I can recommend the book because of that, though some of the advices he lists are pretty self-evident -- such as deleting apps from your phone -- and the general dogma of the book is tech-bro adjacent. Newport also name-drops his previous book a lot, in case that is a turn-off. But the general consensus coming from me is that it may not be that eye-opening, but can still supply you with some handlebars to get going.

I myself have been using Niagra as a launcher on my phone to keep things uncluttered, and is also aethetically pleasing. It works good in hiding app icons in a drawer or folders, or hides them completely unless I actively search for it. The latter works great for apps that can't be uninstalled. It does store data, but they are pretty transparent on the usage. Regardless, I trust a EU-based company more on the matter of data collection and user privacy than one based in the US, given the laws that are in place.

Beyond that I do the basic disabling of notifications for apps that I don't need them for. A coworker gave me a tip recently on archiving less important contacts on text messengers so they also don't show as notifications and only see their texts when I open the app. It works better than the "priority contacts" system my phone should have.
I also have a no-disturbance setting from 9PM to 9AM that puts the screen in grayscale and blocks any non-priority notifications that I would still have enabled, such as news and emails. I can still turn this off for a moment if I want to check for any incoming info, but that's already another step added to the process.

Overall I think it comes down to minimizing the amount of signals that come out of your phone (or other device). With the current setup I'm totally comfortable in putting my phone away on a table for hours. I may not leave my house with it (yet), but that doesn't seem like such a big step anymore. The one thing I need to tackle is finding an effective way to avoid scrolling when I get bored on commutes and such.

Internet drought update -- 17 October 2024

 So I guess some of the above was put into practice recently, haha. The first days of my move were marked by a lack of (wifi) internet connection, which at time of writing should be solved soon, but I did go about a week without a connection on my laptop. Noted disclaimer: I did have data on my phone, enough to last me well through the month if need be.

Observations were that instinctively I started saving up on my data usage inside the house, or in places where I otherwise didn't need it. Most of my 'regular' data usage is on the road during commute to work or friends and family, but that doesn't take up too much. To be without internet on my laptop was partially frustrating, most because I could not f.e. make a notice of my address change via there easily, or look up things/do research for writing or drawing.

Still, there definitely were benefits.
  • I went to sleep more on time (10PM-ish)
  • My dinner was more on set hours
  • I didn't jump on my laptop for entertainment as easily -- so I picked up books more often
  • Also a side-effect of the moving in general, but I walked around outside more to see the neighborhood, sometimes without music.
Right now there's an 'emergency connection' that we (me and my neighbor) got from the future provider until the fibre is installed and ready. It's basically a mobile hotspot with 100GB inside of it, which doesn't make me too comfortable to watch/stream video online, but takes the smaller hurdle in front of casual browsing away.

I am trying to see if all this has a positive effect in the long run, and if I can manage to work the pretty good schedule I got going now into the time when I will have stable internet again and will be off working after my vacation.

Expression

Personal expression used to be a big deal in online (social) spaces. Creating an online persona is a way of doing that, even if that's not a reflection of one's real-life self. There are certainly arguments to be made for keeping those seperate for the sake of privacy, and so I'm not argueing entirely against having an online persona. The "problem", however, is that overtime this has become something of a template-based endeavor, where aesthetics are collected and thrown away like fast-fashion items.

One has to make a persona, a presentation of self, in order to make themselves visible. On platforms that rely on connections through followers and/or friends, this is almost vital.2 - p.128

However, recent devlopments on design have shown that this self-expression is becoming stale. As mentioned with the "template persona", platforms have started to copy and leech off each other. TikTok was up and coming and promptly YouTube created Shorts, Instagram pushed forward Reels, Twitter scrolls to the next video automatically, etc. etc.
Platforms have become less about a single, well-focused use for their users, and more about having broad appeal or the latest hot function to reel in as many active users as they can. It leaves little to the imagination that part of the reason is profit.2 - p.132

More users = more people viewing ads = more income.

Add to this the possibility for users to make their own profit, and everyone is putting out the same stuff from the user's end.

I don't mean to brag when I define as a contrarian in that regard. Trends don't bother me much, or I'm way behind on catching them to get involved if I wanted to. The site you see in front of you looks the way it does because I like the style old Windows PCs used to have. I like pixels! Give me more pixels! Thankfully there are others that like this similar visual style, and I've been able to learn a lot from them in terms of presentation. Yes, I fit in a box there, but it is one I picked myself. What I like and don't like are very clear in my head. Being free from an urge to hop on trends is, both on- and offline, a great state of mind to be in.

My workplace has a social media platform that, by necessity, needs to adhere to certain trends in order to remain "visible". What does that mean? Does it mean an algorythm puts it more to the forefront? Are people more inclined to share something when it resembles another? There's been this great little thing like a life-cycle of a meme, where the clear point of decline is when a meme has been picked up by the corporate elements. A similar thing can be said about modes of self-expression; they're fun until they become too much of a business.

Safety

So Twitter (read: X. read: Elon Musk) decided to make the block function no longer a block function. My own blocking practices are very loose and personal; if I don't like your vibe, you'll get a block. In other cases, however, blocking is a serious safety matter. Stalkers are bound to make burner profiles to sneak past a block to simply look at your info and whereabouts. This is the exact thing that Twitter wants to make possible for them despite being blocked. If you had your profile public except for a few bad guys looking to harm you, then you're in bad luck now because they'll be able to view your activity and what you post despite you not wanting them to, for legitimate reasons.

The only solution seems to be to go private. Earlier, Twitter threw their 'circles' function out the window (a tool that made a specific post visible to a selected part of your following, similar to Instagram's 'best friends') and now they're going after blocking. With the precedent that sets, not even going private might be safe, but it is a known fact that Twitter gets the most attention and revenue when it is a crazy free-for-all hornet's nest. I at least don't think that Musk will have noble intentions with all these changes.

Semi-related: Matt Mulenberg (noted for following a user from Tumblr to Twitter to harass them there) has caused a fiasco by doing a sorta hostile takeover of an WordPress extension he didn't vibe with. A friend working with WordPress website design has told me of the shit that could cause for simply how they can do their job as a company, but pettiness prevails over all in the current age of techbro's showing their true prideful underbelly. It's childish, and I can't be more happy than making my own corner of the internet with the sticks and stones that I got.

Severance

"At the end of the day," Uncle Coworker once said to me on a quiet day on the job, "every human being should have the right to disappear completely and without a trace."
This was said in a talk that started with the decline in production and sales of physical maps due to mobile gps systems, which turned towards the current state of surveillance and tracking. There are very little places in the world where someone is truly free from being observed. The definition that includes a physical set of eyes is the most positive, for you can return home and close the curtains for privacy (if you live alone). If we include online activity, the possibility for complete severance is minimal.

Rainie and Wellman

 The social requirement of the age of networked individuals is to be connected and findable. It is a precondition to successful networking and network building. It is also a reality that is anathema to privacy and solitude.3 - p.289-290

A world without online connection seems impossible, and it is! To hear of someone who has 0 online presence is surprising in the current day. Constant availability is one of them, but the climate also to a degree warrants sharing personal info in order to maintain social relationships. To go weeks without a text or feed update puts a strain on relationships that are had in real life, and that is not how the world used to be.

"Text me when you get home!" uses the positive effects of this connectability. We like to make sure our loved ones are safe, and that is possible now. Pushing this to an extreme has people installing trackers, or text-spamming when someone doesn't reply when they need them to. The benefits are great; the downsides largely ignored until recently. The emerging view of kids being online without supervision, while their offline behavior is constantly monitored, is the greatest irony of the decade.

Personally, I have been looking in alternatives, sometimes behavioral changes, sometimes other analog devices, that make my life less online yet stil functional by today's standards. Not all cuts can be made as easily. Spotify is very useful when I just like one song by a band and want a little more explorability besides it. But I have been looking at MP3 players to make a sidestep, but so far with limited success. When some artists are pulled offline, I'm glad I have a record player. Picking up unique, indie vinyls at markets is very fun, if a bit expensive if you can otherwise try out a lot of music for what feels like for free. A cassette player would be equally fun, but still has limits compared to modern tech.
I've found out that the TV I have from my grandparents has a build-in DVD player! I don't own much at the moment, but there's a Goodwill nearby that usually has big collections for cheap. I might start a collection once I got room set out for it.

Technology should be an addition to our lives to make it easier, not something that is needed in order to feel fullfilled. "Touching grass" as silly as it may sound in online discourse, is legitimately good advice. Taking a step back from the digital world should be encouraged, not seem as something impossible.

Zuck can Zuck it update -- 9 January 2025

 My Instagram account has just been scheduled for, but it took seemingly forever to get to that point. Not by some nefarious plan to make the "pressing of a button" impossible. No, rather I could not log in at all, and the password reset link did not sent from my computer. From the app, somehow, it did sent. But even then the code within the email gave back a "something went wrong" message, even when I triple-checked the thing. The link within the email worked and yeah, okay, that's fixed now I guess.

But I guess that reinforces my point from the above. Why is the road to simply logging in so hectic? If safety concerns are the reason, then why make the environment of all Meta spaces as potentially hostile as X/Twitter? If I had the suspicion that my account was hacked, then why do I get directed in circles on the help page, with no way of finding any contact info for a human customer service person? Downward spiral, I tell ya.

Kinda bleak to have two men who happen to be in charge of the world's largest online social platforms be so openly supportive of an autocratic dictator lol.

Takeaways

  • Social media platforms should find a focus that keeps them functional, safe, and stable. No matter the number of users.
  • People on the internet should not be required to have multiple platforms to remain "relevant". Different people have different needs.
  • Internet, something becoming close to a human right/necessity, should not be for profit.

Sources

1 Newport, Cal. Digital Minimalism. Penguin Business, 2019.
2 Jordan, Tim. “Social Media Networks.” In Information Politics: Liberation and Exploitation in the Digital Society, 120–40. Pluto Press, 2015. Jstor link
3 Rainie, Lee, and Barry Wellman. Networked: The New Social Operating System. The MIT Press, 2012. Jstor link

Recommended Reading / TBR