I watched The Social Dilemma on Netflix. Much of the information presented I already knew - big tech mines all of our personal data and manipulates us to increase screen time in whichever way they can.

The movie itself has a story in-between the interview clips that help demonstrate the effects that social media (and cellphones) enable within a family. In one scene the son's cellphone's screen's cracks and the mom says that she'll replace it if he can not use his phone for a week, since, as he says "it's no big deal".

The algorithms notice his usage has changed, i.e. stopped, analyze that similar people in his area haven't changed their usage and start a "reactivation" sequence, to suck him back in. To tempt him to open the app they find a recent event that will entice him back in and, like a drug addict, he's back.

It reminds me of the seemingly random push notifications I get from instagram when I haven't used the app in a few days. Nothing is random with social media, but it didn't occur to me that they were trying to "reactivate" me and just how slimy that is. There's no regard for the "user" - only their advertisers, which is their real user.

Most of all, watching The Social Dilemma makes me grateful for the indie web, communities like micro.blog, and apps like Sunlit that allow social media without algorithms without manipulation for advertisers, powered (more or less) by RSS and other open standards.

The more I think about it, the more I think Apple should knock FB/Instagram down a peg with a iWeb-powered micro.blog style blog-based social network.

Sweets for guests. And maybe me too. 😋

Easy 5km after work. Starting to cool down a bit in the evenings in Yokohama. So nice.🏃

Excited to read my new books from Stripe Press. Hard cover feels so nice. Typesetting an entire book in a sans-serifs less so. But either way 👍📚

Summer Mt. Fuji 🗻

Having a blog again, especially one weekly post is changing how I interact with the internet. It's making it fun again.

Like most I had a blog in the early 2000's and it slowly faded from use with the rise of FB, Twitter, and other social media. But by limiting myself to those platforms, I also limited how I could share.

There is no "save draft" of a tweet. And you can only fit so much nuance in 140 280 characters.

Now, with a blog, when I find something that looks like I'd want to share or I might want to share, I simply append the link to the latest The Week post. Then, either throughout the week, or in the 15 minutes before posting, I expand upon that link, maybe even add some context. Sharing has become more about than just sharing some random link or video. I have the space to show how it relates to me and make it personal, rather than just a simple retweet that gets lost in the stream.

I didn't realize it, but I was missing that space. My own cubby on the internet. No longer being locked into a format, time, or design decided by someone I don't know gives me a place I can call home.

No algorithms. No ads. Just me.

The DMV by any other name is still, the DMV. Already 50 people ahead of me.

It’s so hot out already.