I was just thinking yesterday how nice it would be to have the money and knowledge to create some kind of social media that didn't suck. Chronological timelines, good vibes, no AI garbage or algorithms. But I don't know if people would even truly go for something simple and ideal at this point after we've all been conditioned to the current way of things.
It’s a great point you raise. From a technical stand point this is doable; early social networks, including Facebook, had chronological timelines, for example. The challenge is the business model. If it’s a paid service, it’s very hard to scale. If it’s ad-supported the platform ends up in the business of monetizing attention and selling that attention to advertisers, so you sort of end up with a Meta product; Meta being one of the largest advertising businesses in the history of the world. There used to a build-your-own social network called Ning. I think it was too technical to scale and it never really found a biz model. I’m curious to see who bluesky works out, but I’m not holding my breathe. It just be that the medium sucks. Or it could be that the medium is fine but there’s no viable biz model that doesn’t turn the product to shit.
Thanks so much for promoting and donating to Watch Duty. It is literally a life saver. Santa Rosa-based, yay!! I’ve been a supporter since their beginning when they covered just three counties.
Santa Rosa should be very proud. My understanding is that Watch Duty came out of the tragedy of the Santa Rosa fires. It is so inspiring to see a small, well-trained and determined group of people turn a bad experience into a life-line for so many people.
Longtime reader and Watch Duty donor in Sonoma here. It’s such a well-done product with a dedicated team keeping it updated constantly. It’s a beautiful example of the internet done right
Non-sequitor: I had a Chipotle chicken asada burrito Sunday (I know, I know but we were hangry). A day later, I realized I could have eaten it from the middle of the side, instead of the middle of a wrapped end. I thought of your Great Burrito Experiment, and it made me happy.
I found out about my best friend's death because his girlfriend posted it on Facebook. She told me she somehow missed me in the phone calls. I deactivated my Facebook now so I'm likely going to be the last to know when a friend dies, if that's how people are spreading the word.
Wow. What an excellent donation. Thank you for being a mensch. Love Watch Duty--the only place to get good information during the scarier moments and still right now.
Thank you, Anne! Honestly, my first thought, after the obligatory "holy shit," was "this doesn't belong to me." So I never really thought of myself as a recipient, more like a conduit.
+1. I’ve been doing/making internet stuff since the mid-90s and (sadly) agree with everything you’ve said. I’m so sorry you’ve had to manage this in addition to the pain, heartbreak and terror in your hometown. I’m sorry about Burt. And I applaud your generous urge to pay it forward. I have to believe these kinds of conversations — these little islands of reality — are un-enshittifiable. Maybe I’m naive, but I still believe that. We’re not going anywhere. We’ve got a foothold in reality, even as it’s encroached upon by whatever oozes out of these corrupted social media platforms. And if Substack goes the way of Meta, there’s always the export button and a mailing list server.
Thank you for this comment, Asha, I really appreciate it. The export button & mailing list are huge leaps forward and good safeguards against enshitification. What's so interesting, to me anyway, is that it's really old tech (a listserv) that is our lifeboat. To me, that's a good reminder that the fun, freedom, and utility of the internet have long been there, and that most recent developments are really just about trading things that are really valuable (relationships, attention, expression, etc.) for convenience.
Tooo many videos on IG from “the fires” where I thought, “Is that real??”
Hope you are safe and settled. I did hear from reliable sources that the air quality will be crap for a few months and it’s advisable to wear a mask outdoors. Just when you put those N95s in storage… Sigh.
Thanks for the update Michael. It can't be easy to try and go back to regularly scheduled programming when there is so much clusterbusting around. Glad you are safe and have been able to pass along your windfall to an organization that clearly punched well above it's weight in this latest disaster.
You’re a mensch too, Michael. If I had come into $10k and didn’t need it, I’d probably still blow a few hundred on something for myself before donating the rest. But in reality, a really good cookie would set off the same dopamine at a fraction of the cost. I’m eager to check out Watch Duty; thanks for suggesting that. Hope you continue to stay safe.
Yeah, they’re focused on wildfires. Way more demand for that west of the Mississippi. But I could see them growing & expanding to cover other types of natural disasters.
We’ve had wildfires here (and I remember the Pine Barrens on LI burning when you and I were kids), and we’ve had two droughts here in the past two years and live in a heavily wooded area. Multiple red flag warnings the last few years. I feel like we’re all ticking time bombs. Not to detract from the mass destruction they’ve caused out west, but this planet sure is changing fast. All it takes is a dry day and one horse’s ass to ruin a lot of lives.
Thanks for sharing all these thoughts, friend. Am glad you made the choice to go with Watch Duty. 10K is an impactful donation for them and will go a long way.
I was just thinking yesterday how nice it would be to have the money and knowledge to create some kind of social media that didn't suck. Chronological timelines, good vibes, no AI garbage or algorithms. But I don't know if people would even truly go for something simple and ideal at this point after we've all been conditioned to the current way of things.
It’s a great point you raise. From a technical stand point this is doable; early social networks, including Facebook, had chronological timelines, for example. The challenge is the business model. If it’s a paid service, it’s very hard to scale. If it’s ad-supported the platform ends up in the business of monetizing attention and selling that attention to advertisers, so you sort of end up with a Meta product; Meta being one of the largest advertising businesses in the history of the world. There used to a build-your-own social network called Ning. I think it was too technical to scale and it never really found a biz model. I’m curious to see who bluesky works out, but I’m not holding my breathe. It just be that the medium sucks. Or it could be that the medium is fine but there’s no viable biz model that doesn’t turn the product to shit.
Thanks so much for promoting and donating to Watch Duty. It is literally a life saver. Santa Rosa-based, yay!! I’ve been a supporter since their beginning when they covered just three counties.
Santa Rosa should be very proud. My understanding is that Watch Duty came out of the tragedy of the Santa Rosa fires. It is so inspiring to see a small, well-trained and determined group of people turn a bad experience into a life-line for so many people.
Lead story in Thursday’s Santa Rosa Press Democrat about Watch Duty’s origin and growth.
Spotlight on Watch Duty
https://edition.pagesuite.com/popovers/dynamic_article_popover.aspx?artguid=989cc645-8897-4bb5-b97f-76a9f7a77004&appcode=PRE341&eguid=7abdf57b-a758-4292-8ea3-bd7ea1a824cf&pnum=2#
Love this! Thank you for sharing.
Longtime reader and Watch Duty donor in Sonoma here. It’s such a well-done product with a dedicated team keeping it updated constantly. It’s a beautiful example of the internet done right
I hope you get the social media clusterfuck disaster situations sorted and return to situation normal soon!
thank you, Amy! I'm working on it.
It used to just be Howard Stern's knuckleheaded followers who created havoc during crises - now, thanks to social media, everybody can do it.
“the relentless march of enshittification” is a good way of describing the arc of social media.
You're a mensch, Michael. Thank you for this article. And for your generous donation to Watch Duty; you're so inspiring.
Non-sequitor: I had a Chipotle chicken asada burrito Sunday (I know, I know but we were hangry). A day later, I realized I could have eaten it from the middle of the side, instead of the middle of a wrapped end. I thought of your Great Burrito Experiment, and it made me happy.
Now *that* made me smile. Thank you, Betsy!
I found out about my best friend's death because his girlfriend posted it on Facebook. She told me she somehow missed me in the phone calls. I deactivated my Facebook now so I'm likely going to be the last to know when a friend dies, if that's how people are spreading the word.
It was a really shitty way to find out.
Oh my goodness. That sounds so awful, Amber. I am so sorry you found out that way. It’s rotten. Just rotten.
Wow. What an excellent donation. Thank you for being a mensch. Love Watch Duty--the only place to get good information during the scarier moments and still right now.
Thank you, Mary.
Wow so much respect for you making that donation Mr. Estrin. What a good example you are.
Thank you, Anne! Honestly, my first thought, after the obligatory "holy shit," was "this doesn't belong to me." So I never really thought of myself as a recipient, more like a conduit.
+1. I’ve been doing/making internet stuff since the mid-90s and (sadly) agree with everything you’ve said. I’m so sorry you’ve had to manage this in addition to the pain, heartbreak and terror in your hometown. I’m sorry about Burt. And I applaud your generous urge to pay it forward. I have to believe these kinds of conversations — these little islands of reality — are un-enshittifiable. Maybe I’m naive, but I still believe that. We’re not going anywhere. We’ve got a foothold in reality, even as it’s encroached upon by whatever oozes out of these corrupted social media platforms. And if Substack goes the way of Meta, there’s always the export button and a mailing list server.
Thank you for this comment, Asha, I really appreciate it. The export button & mailing list are huge leaps forward and good safeguards against enshitification. What's so interesting, to me anyway, is that it's really old tech (a listserv) that is our lifeboat. To me, that's a good reminder that the fun, freedom, and utility of the internet have long been there, and that most recent developments are really just about trading things that are really valuable (relationships, attention, expression, etc.) for convenience.
👏👏👏Watch Duty is awesome.
Tooo many videos on IG from “the fires” where I thought, “Is that real??”
Hope you are safe and settled. I did hear from reliable sources that the air quality will be crap for a few months and it’s advisable to wear a mask outdoors. Just when you put those N95s in storage… Sigh.
Something tells me we’re gonna wanna keep those masks handy no matter where we live.
Thanks for the update Michael. It can't be easy to try and go back to regularly scheduled programming when there is so much clusterbusting around. Glad you are safe and have been able to pass along your windfall to an organization that clearly punched well above it's weight in this latest disaster.
Thank you, Kim!
This is a great essay. I can relate to so much of it, in terms of social media and the disconnect we all feel. Thank you for a great read.
Thank you, I’m glad this resonated.
You’re a mensch too, Michael. If I had come into $10k and didn’t need it, I’d probably still blow a few hundred on something for myself before donating the rest. But in reality, a really good cookie would set off the same dopamine at a fraction of the cost. I’m eager to check out Watch Duty; thanks for suggesting that. Hope you continue to stay safe.
Thanks for this comment, Amy! If nothing else I’m reading this as permission to get a really good cookie.
Update: Watch Duty is presently only covering states west of the Mississippi River. Shucks. We definitely need them in NYS. Maybe someday.
Yeah, they’re focused on wildfires. Way more demand for that west of the Mississippi. But I could see them growing & expanding to cover other types of natural disasters.
We’ve had wildfires here (and I remember the Pine Barrens on LI burning when you and I were kids), and we’ve had two droughts here in the past two years and live in a heavily wooded area. Multiple red flag warnings the last few years. I feel like we’re all ticking time bombs. Not to detract from the mass destruction they’ve caused out west, but this planet sure is changing fast. All it takes is a dry day and one horse’s ass to ruin a lot of lives.
With any luck (and more money) Watch Duty will available in your area soon.
Thanks for sharing all these thoughts, friend. Am glad you made the choice to go with Watch Duty. 10K is an impactful donation for them and will go a long way.