Why this is, a sort of manifesto.
Because I’m tired of feeding a meaningless validation based system.
Tired of being at the mercy of Silicon Valley’s business models. Tired of being turned into a product for profit. To anticipate whats the next big thing, what platform will be. I’m just me. As an artist, the tid bits produced are like a window to my soul- my expression, thoughts, opinions- that I won’t give away as a marketing commodity to social media platforms, in exchange for “exposure”. How is this an exchange when constantly prompted to pay for more “exposure”? If you don’t pay (with literal money, figurative “prostitution” or by spending time on the social media platform), you simply aren’t being exposed.
This is an all-in-one Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, [insert hot new social media platform here]. With no likes, thumbs, or even comments enabled. No one may ever come across this free floating atom, but is it any worse than people mindlessly scrolling through feeds looking for funny memes?
We happen to have a gigantic and free www canvas. It once used to be wild, and belong to the people, not corporations. Before social media and platforms started pissing contests to earn its biggest share and rule over it. Lets take it back.
I spend time exploring rabbit holes on the web. I love falling into them and getting lost not knowing where I will resurface from. With new ideas, thoughts and discoveries. I’m thankful for this technology we have been handed in our generation. For someone who loves connecting the dots, to follow signs, it is like chocolate. When I come across a compelling artist, blog or idea, I bookmark it and check back frequently. Its like a chaotic brain map in constant expansion.
That was the role played by library before the web. Then taken over by such medias as radio and TV. But in all of these cases, there was a curated selection made between you and what you could access. What is precious and invaluable about the free web, is the quasi non existence of a curation system. Once you’ve replaced Google with other search engine such as Duck Duck Go of course, we can tele transport into someone else’s world rid of predetermined algorithms. Open Source like WordPress here, allowing anyone to express and contribute to it.
As a music artist, I will extend this thought into the (lack of or) benefits of record labels curation system as well.
But to cut it short, the free web as libraries, don’t aim at “degrading our humanity”. Social Media by design, do.
If you stumble upon this blog, you may or may not enjoy it. I don’t need to know. I love you all, not for reading me, but just for being. Fellow human, maybe our paths would cross one day, we’d have a drink.
