I was scrolling through Threads this morning when I was fed the following post.
Post by @benedictevansView on Threads
He followed it up with this one which is useful context for those of us unfamiliar with the arts and crafts of the late 19th century.
Post by @benedictevansView on Threads
I can appreciate the irony in this a lot of way. It takes a certain kind of elite tech user to wish people published to their own sites…and to prove that point, I’ll compare it to the creation of railroad lines. A timely reference everyone will understand.
Anyway, I take issue with this statement. First is, I encourage all folks who want to have an online presence, to have their own site. At the very least, own a domain so you can make a site later with your own name if you want it. The reason for this is quite simple. Having an online presence via Facebook, Threads, LinkedIn, is fantastic but it’s not yours. You’re “renting” the space with your attention. You are not the customer. The businesses that buy ad space on those sites are the customer. Not to say that those sites are bad because they’re not but it’s not your space on the web.
The next thing I take issue with is that it’s some kind of elite internet take for people to have their own site, specifically WordPress. First of all, it’s not a difficult task to spin up a WordPress site. If you go through WordPress.com, the build gets set up for you and it’s quite easy to manage. If you’re self-hosting WordPress, yes more issues can come from that but you know what? That’s ok.
Here comes the elite take…
The Web was better when it had some friction. Now that everything is easy to sign up and to spew content on, we are all drowning in C- content, ads, and trash just demanding our attention all of the time. That friction meant if you want to post something, you have to really want to post it. With no friction, everyone got online, consolidated under a few platforms, and those platforms sold out users for algorithms to sell ads. The friction was a good thing.
On a similar note, this week Threads/Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced that Threads/Instagram would be adjusting to avoid putting political content in front of folks. If you want this content, you can opt-in to get it.
Post by @mosseriView on Threads
This change was met with…I suppose mixed reviews? On one hand, sure none of us want big tech to be suppressing political takes on the free and open web but you know what Threads and Instagram isn’t? The free and open web. There is no friction. Anyone can sign up and say whatever they want. Maybe…we don’t have algorithms tuning for that. You don’t get a frictionless acquisition strategy…AND the free and open web.
“Andrew, is it really the free and open web anymore? What if your web host just shuts down your content?” You move your website to a new host. You self host. You do something besides complain that you’re being censored.
I suppose this makes me an internet elite? Fine. I guess it does. I’ve probably earned that title. However, to be clear, I’m not trying to gate keep the web. If you read this and say “my guy I don’t care, just let me post on Instagram in peace” then that’s fine. Just know the tradeoff being made.