All relationships require trust. The internet and I are not doing well. Content feels fake in a way that it didn’t five years ago. The products advertised are probably overpriced and terrible, too much information is made up, and the memes meant to manipulate. I don’t think I am more discerning so much that that the practitioners of disinformation got better at their craft and online shopping has provided me with terrible products. If I held them in my hands, I would not have tried to acquire them. The text descriptions, the pictures, the reviews – they all misrepresented information. And then you hear about litter boxes in schools.

More than stuff, I seek connection. With that said, I quit Twitter awhile ago for the same reasons everyone else did. When it was good, it was really good – an internet version of bumping into people at a café or park. It was a facilitator of conversations, exposure to people who are different than the people immediately around. And then modifications to the website more or less poisoned the magic. There was no reason to stay, unless you like porn-bots and fascism.

Since then, I have scratched the social media itch through forums that are more based on the people you know and less on strangers. My favorite is a discord of local people. I read the local reddit. The content I read there is anchored to people or things I know and experience in my world and so my BS meter has a reference point.

I resisted joining Threads for a long time. I don’t really post, but Instagram will link the short stories people post in their main feed. It’s catnip. Instagram’s algorithm is really good at linking those human stories where someone shares their point of view or experience about something. Being curious about others is pretty much my thing, so I’ll click. It’s the closest experience to Twitter that I’ve found as far as the way people share stories.

When I was on Twitter, my feed was a cultivated list of local people and some far away who I felt were legit. I would find others based on their connections to other people, people who engaged in conversation with each other, and so forth. It was a fabulous way to meet strangers. I do miss that.

Threads feels like a firehose of disconnected strangers, stories that I can’t tell were written to advance something, and people who aren’t vetted. Like if watching TV was just the commercials, but what they are selling you is a story and what they want is your attention. The strategies of being an influencer are more well-known. I think more people are attempting to practice that, wanting the attention more than practicing authenticity may naturally direct them. It feels so fake. I see the practices even in some people I am acquainted to in the real world. You can tell when someone is trying to be an influencer, as opposed self-expression as a means of connection. It’s cringe.

Shocking things get attention. In my real-world interactions, I’ve been astounded at how some things that should have obviously failed the smell test didn’t because people are getting information from social media. They heard the same story over again. Repetition made it seem true. They say the truth will set you free, but the truth is being boxed in a cage by people with ulterior motives – it’s really not enough to be a fact to get accepted as one. Information flows through a circulatory system of biases.

Being on the internet is a lot less fun than it used to be. It feels like being in a carnival where so many people are trying to scam you that the genuinely fun parts are out numbered. You need to have your guard up constantly, and that’s not a fun way to live.

What is real? I know that which I can see with my own eyes is real. I know which people in my life I trust to be discerning and accurate. I’m feeling a way about the news. It’s not fun to approach the world with an attitude of skepticism. If we are going to be responsible in our search for truth and meaning, well, we have to be thoughtful and discerning. I do not know another way.