Whenever I read an article like this that calls out things like "[driving us] deeper and deeper into our algorithmic hell holes.", I want to scream, and shake the author by the shoulders. "Snap out of it!" I yell.

We don't have to make a Twitter account. No one held a gun to our heads to get on TikTok. Instagram? Pintrest? We don't need to join those.

I'm not suggesting everyone swear off all social media. I enjoy my various Discords and message boards. I enjoy reading HN. But these patterns of doomscrolling various social apps flummoxes me. "TikTok is so bad." Well then, why did you make an account???

I realize there's some devils in the details here with regards to social pressures and the like. But I don't think they're by any means insurmountable. And if you're at the point that you're going to write tens of pages on this phenomena, then ride that momentum and delete the accounts when you're done. You'll feel better for it.

All that aside, I did greatly enjoy the read for its retrospective on 90s and 2000s phone culture and that wonderful period of tech where we were just starting to get connected - tantalizingly so - but it was so limited and clunky that it preserved a sense of mystery. Or at least, that's how it felt at the time.