What incredible control we’ve handed over to technology platforms. I’ve been de-platformed from more spaces than I can count now, always for violating what they call “spam” guidelines.
Which, if we’re being honest, feels like part of the enshittification process. Platforms don’t want you talking about your work unless you’re paying them to do it. Can’t promote what you do. What you’re building. What you’re thinking.
So then the question becomes… why be there at all?
Why would I want to be on a platform where I can’t talk about my work? My passions. What I’m building. What I care about. Am I supposed to just comment on whatever bullshit distraction is trending this week?
My latest excommunication was from Substack. No explanation. Just gone. Maybe I talked about community too much. Maybe I tripped something in the algorithm. Who knows.
But it gets to the core of this problem.
Why do we need their platforms if we can only say what they allow us to say? Why would I want to talk about what some tech company wants me to talk about?
What if… I want to talk about what I want to talk about?
Maybe, if I can’t do that on their platforms… I should build my own. Maybe we all should. Maybe that’s where this goes. Maybe it’s time to walk away from the big platforms altogether.
Because the level of control being exerted now… it’s become unbearable. And it’s not just tech. It’s everywhere. Institutions, systems, authority structures. All narrowing the lane of speech. We’ve been hemmed in and herded down the chute toward the death of our creative expression.
And if that’s the case, then original thought doesn’t belong on their platforms anyway.
It belongs somewhere else.
Maybe that’s why you see people talking to themselves on street corners. Not because they’ve lost their minds… but because they’ve run out of places where they’re allowed to say what they actually think.
So here’s to talking to yourself on a street corner.
I’ll see you there.
YOU CAN NOW FIND ME ON THE FOLLOWING STREET CORNERS!!!!!
