We don't have to shout any more
Happy people, the kind who eat sandwiches together, are boring. They don’t buy much. Their smartphones are six versions behind and have badly cracked screens. They fix bicycles, then they talk about fixing bicycles, then they show their friend, who just came over for no reason, how they fixed their bicycle, and their friend says, “Wow, good job,” and they make tea.
Paul Ford, in God Did the World a Favor by Destroying Twitter
I am a Christian and Paul's analysis of the Tower of Babel story is a better interpretation than most. I'm not saying that the self-destruction of Twitter was divinely orchestrated (though, James 4:13-14 is appropriate), but the fact that a large centralized space is falling apart is indicative of the dangers of putting efforts and energies into those kinds of structures. Our social networks are normally small. Our families, neighbors, and work colleagues are a small group. We're built for small interactions and trying to replicate that up to the millions goes against the nature of people.
I left Twitter this year after nearly 12 years on the platform. I wasn't there from the start, but it was a long time. Honestly, it feels like when I left facebook almost 10 years ago. I don't miss it becuase for the most part, save a few unique examples, it wasn't relationship. It wasn't community. It was a bunch of people standing in the square just shouting.
Other interesting finds this week
- I've always felt weird about watching streamers and I think this post starts to capture why.
- I'm doing more code editing with Helix and I'm realizing that I need many, many more snippets and aliases to work efficiently. Hyde has a good roundup of his setup.