I've started this personal blog in a response to the state of social media. The brain-rot algorithms that want to suck us all dry certainly weighs on the medium's promise to connect us across geographies, philosophies, cultures, communities. I remember the color revolutions on Twitter and realizing the power of these tools. Alas, that was a decade ago. Things have changed.

Recently, I've become a proponent of Bluesky and more specifically the protocol it's built on: ATProtocol, or The Atmosphere. This article is a great, non-technical article explaining the protocol:

Open Social — overreacted

The protocol is the API.

It's summed up well here:

Every bit of public data that Alice and Bob created—their posts, their likes, their comments, their recipes, their scrobbles—is meaningfully owned by them. It’s not in a database subject to some CEO’s whims, but hosted directly on the open web, with ability to “walk away” without losing traffic or breaking any links.

Like the web of personal sites, this model is centered around the user.

So, basically, owning your data, with the ability to move it around as you wish. Seems like a no-brainer. Where this open social concept and therefore bluesky really sold me is their philosophy on algorithms:

Algorithmic choice - Bluesky

Your attention is an invaluable resource. We want a future where you control what you see on social media.

Bluesky

Your attention is an invaluable resource. A social platform's algorithm is responsible for curating the content in your feed. The algorithm, more than the content type or the app's appearance, is the core of social media because it directs how you spend your attention there.

Unfortunately, there’s usually very little transparency into how things are selected or why content is being shown to you. While you have the choice to open or close a social app, you often lack control over the content you see while using it.

And their solution:

We want a future where you control what you see on social media. We aim to replace the conventional "master algorithm," controlled by a single company, with an open and diverse "marketplace of algorithms."

So, what does this look like in practice?

Bluesky has a built-in Discover feed, which would be like Insta's stock algorithm (i.e. the only algorithm offered on that platform) - this feed surfaces posts as Bluesky sees fit, it serves posts it'll think you like and would be the standard for any social media site that exists.

Many users on Bluesky felt the Discover feed wasn't surfacing relevant content, so a dude name SpaceCowboy (good name!) created a feed called For You which is totally replaced my Discover feed. Its algorithm is tuned much better to surfacing relevant content.

Maybe this seems stupid but imagine Instagram giving you options to have that algorithmic choice - they couldn't! We'd ignore all their ads, we'd negate all the slop they need you to see, we'd negate all their engagement-farming, addiction-creating posts. Not good for a company that depends on those things to make its billions.

So, in summary, hit me up on Bluesky!

Some other interesting reads:

A Social Filesystem — overreacted

Formats over apps.