In my case, I avoided interacting with social media for most of my life. No Twitter, no Facebook, and until recently, not even HN (aside from reading). This was to protect my focus, and my attention span. My smartphone was just phone.
But I recently started a creative writing practice, and sharing ideas has become important to me. HN felt like a safe place to engage, and I genuinely enjoy the discussions here. That said, I’ve already noticed myself checking my phone more often, anticipating replies, and chasing that little dopamine spike. What was once just a phone is now a catalyst for distraction and creative connection, all at once.
I’ve held off posting to platforms like X because I suspect it’ll get worse. But in today’s world, where writing or building anything online often means “building a following,” is it even possible to avoid the trap?
Are there meaningful ways to engage and grow publicly without becoming trapped in doom-scrolling, infinite feeds, and notification loops ? Or is distraction now the entry fee for visibility?
Would love to hear from others who’ve tried to strike this balance, especially writers, developers, and indie founders.
I think it's exactly that - balance.
In my experience the most important aspect is avoiding recommendation feeds. They are hyper optimized to be dopamine driven feedback loops. In a parallel universe these feeds would be customizable (sort for great discussions, thoughtful or uplifting content as the user sees fit, but most feeds are black boxes that are explicitly designed to maximize engagement, which means of course to maximize addiction.
The second most important aspect is turning off the notifications.
Another angle to attack is the hardware itself. It isn't for everyone, but there is a little corner of the tech universe with minimal phones like, well, Minimal Phone, and Light Phone. Unihertz is also coming out with a BlackBerry Passport keyboard phone soon (Kickstarter campaign coming later this month) that looks quite promising. Again the hardware is just badly suited for feed doom scrolling.
Then carefully choose the services you interact with. HN rather than Reddit home feeds, etc. Tildes is another good small one, as is Discuit.
Now if you're seeking visibility, perhaps there is a devil's bargain that you have to submit to to some degree. That said, one half of the equation is the presence that you are providing, and you can control that. For example choose to host a minimalist blog rather than a swarm of social media engagement. I like Blot.im, although there are many like it that can make simple markup style pages.
Also instead of freeform constant engagement with social media, try and use formats to your advantage. In a world with endless noise on social media a great weekly newsletter can actually get quite a following (I've noticed that I love simple weekly newsletters that curate thoughts and content for me). I would imagine that if you were trying to pursue an online following, it's probably healthier to cultivate a following through something like this rather than brute forcing engagement metrics.
Lastly, be creative! The social media space is bounded in a tight box, where black box recommendation engines optimized for engagement are considered the norm, despite there being a world of possibility out there. Don't be afraid to be a bit silly either. Sometimes that can help with taking a stand against what can otherwise look like a bit of a dystopian nightmare at times in the digital space. Those minimal phones are silly. Twitter's 160 character limit was silly. Hosting a blog that looks like it's from 1999 is silly. But it's also a bit rebellious which can actually bring more value to the table, even when it comes to things like building a following, then you lose by refusing to engage with the hyper dopamine hacking landscape.
I definitely do not feel the modern smartphone is delivering on the promise of helping us in life.
dc396•8mo ago