The state of things

At eighteen I deleted my Facebook account. Two years ago I deleted the Instagram app from my phone and unfollowed ~800 accounts, sparing only 60 of them — half are friends, half are musicians/actors whose announcements I want to stay updated on. I have tried using Twitter and I have succeeded with Reddit; I deleted both accounts.
Now, I can safely say I no longer use any social media. I still keep the Instagram account and occasionally log in from my pc to check on some of those artists but that's it, there's no scrolling, no liking, no messaging.

At the beginning of this year (on the 1st of January, to be precise) I started building this website as a side project to distract myself from the impending winter exams. I quickly realized I could use this space to collect all my thoughts and finally ditch the myriad of notes app I used to keep on my phone. In browsing the internet, looking for inspiration on how to design these pages, I stumbled upon some interesting blogs that caught my eye, some for their style, some for their content and some for both.

Gradually, I started actually reading these and found (in some) a combination of wisdom, critical thinking, spontaneity and silliness that lead me to began bookmarking those posts that most captivated me, those that made me think, or simply amused me.
Why did I bookmark them? So that I would not forget them, so that I could share them with others, so that I could come back to them and revisit their thoughts after having formed personal opinions on the subject.
Surprisingly, I did all these things! But the last one: going back after having read more, understood more, is what makes me prouder and most amazed.

I am not used to such a use of the web: reading something interesting and then doing more research, to look for other articles on the subject, to compare views, to learn something new.
And not all the things I have learned will necessarily help me in living a better life in any particular way, most of the times I have learnt nothing at all! if not the opinions of some random guy on some random topic, but even then I felt like I had gained something.

Of course I have done many researches on the internet before, I've often found myself falling down a rabbit hole that lead me from something like the wikipedia page of lynx to a 20 minutes video essay about the beauty of 70's japanese movies. And I've also learnt a lot about Linux online — university taught me nothing on that matter. However, both these examples are different from what I've tried explaining above and I hope you catch the reason why.

Not content with the content

This leads me to the first complaint against social media: for the extensive use we make of them

i should not say "we", maybe i am the problem, i am the one who could not turn things around and use them in the correct way. i'll stick with "i".

for the extensive use I made of them, I've learnt almost nothing worthwhile, apart from meme culture. I used to scroll aimlessly for hours a day and still feel empty, hungry for more. More of what, exactly? Ways to distract myself, surely not for the content itself.
The f*ck is content, anyway? I still don't know. It seems to be post after post, tweet after tweet, comment after comment (how I enjoyed reading arguments in the comments!), ... and I read it all! Thousands of words (and emojis and gifs, and memes!) going through my head at such a fast rate that I never had the time to actually stop and think about what I was reading.

But that's your fault!, one might say, You could have stopped at anytime. Yes I could have, but I'm weak. And They feed on my weakness, They know I would have never stopped because, if I had, I would have realized that all of that was... pointless.
The catch here is that most of the content that came my way, I didn't even sign up for; most of it was "suggested" to me by the infamous Algorithm. I applaud its efficiency in understanding my interests and the precision in curating my daily fix of posts. It was truly remarkable. And evil.

Looking for quiet

Slowly, I got tired the noise. The endless stream of posts, tweets, stories and comments became too much for me to navigate without feeling an increasing amount of stress.

I do not exist for the purpose of being exposed to everything everyone has to say about anything. I need some silence.

Personal blogs are so quiet! The absence of an infinite feed filled with so many posts, each with its own likes and comments, each posted to lure people, to make them see and dream, laugh, envy, make them curious, furious, confused... the absence of all this leaves a silent void that I can finally fill with my thoughts, at the pace I want!
Also, the "content" is not published with the intent of appealing to an algorithm but for rather higher purposes: to fulfill a need to write, to put down thoughts and ideas in order to clear one's mind; to actually try and put something out there that might be interesting and catch people's attention for the right reasons; to challenge opinions and create awareness; to explore personal interests...

I do not really know how to put this thought into words, I'll try my best:
a blog page is, in some degree, a stream of consciousness; by reading a blog I get the privilege of exploring somebody else's mind, with my inner voice.
It is an intimate act, a pact of trust — of love, even.

Digital Gardens

Naturally, the world of independent web is not safe from critiques either. There are many sites out there, "blogs" whose nature and goals (gain visibility, make money) are not that different from the evil ones I listed above.
Luckily, most of the blogs I have read so far — at least those I remember well, having caught my attention (which further proves my point) — are not evil. Their owners write for writing's sake, and they make sure to style their space in a unique way, so that when a web traveller stumbles upon it, the feeling is that of being invited inside their home.

I have recently read about the notion of a Digital Garden. I like that. Tending to one's site like a garden.
My space might not perfectly fit the description — in fact, it is not a garden at all because of the way my posts are published on different pages, sorted by date. Nonetheless, I still declare my website to be my digital garden! The meaning I associate to this definition is different, though: it's a space I'll make sure to tend with love and care; every post is a plant, a flower I grow and plant

how can anyone distinguish between "plant" and "plant"?

and plant in this garden of mine. The goal is to look back on it after a while and think "hey, i did that! this is all mine and it shows my growth, my advancement in life.".

How do I conclude? By saying "hey you! quit social media and start curating a personal blog instead!"?
No, do what you want.