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Curating Your Online Experience

There’s a lot of talk about blocking people online lately. The social media platform formerly known as Twitter is doing away with functional blocking, Cohost is shut down, and Bluesky is the latest up-and-coming social media platform. This relates to a broader conversation about online engagement and the methods by which people use social media.

Personally, I prefer the proactive approach of online curation to the passive approach of following an algorithm. Some people may disagree with me and simply not want to put as much effort into how they spend their time online, taking the passive approach of following their chosen site’s algorithm.

Furthermore, others still may take a reactive approach, choosing to engage most when stumbling across inciting posts. An example of this would be those posts circulating on Facebook every Pride Month about pedophiles invading the community. It’s sufficient to say this is rebranded stereotypes about gay people being predators. I’m not a fan, and I choose not to engage with these types of posts, but they’re an excellent example of reactivity at work. Two issues that most people have very strong opinions on, one way or another. It gets people talking, even if not necessarily in a productive manner.

But while that manner of engagement tends to get quantity engagement, it doesn’t so much get quality engagement, which is what I personally prefer. I think what drives this sort of engagement is the want for genuine social connection. If you use social media to engage in genuine social connection with other people rather than to drive up numbers, you may have a more fulfilling online experience.

That isn’t to say you’ll have a perfect experience. I still find myself stumbling across blogs in tags I follow on Tumblr that seem totally irrelevant to me. Frankly, I block these kinds of blogs. I block tags and keywords for things I know I’m uninterested in seeing or which seeing would actively upset me. I block accounts and phrases for any reason, but not every reason. I don’t go seeking out blogs to block, let alone seeking out blogs to report and harass, though I will report other accounts if needed.

All of that to say, the online experience reflects the offline experience. I don’t go out of my way to go places and hang out with people I’m uninterested in. I simply find cool people and try to befriend them, like normal people. I feel like this might be a slightly disjointed post, but I’ve been trying to summarize all of my thoughts for several days, and this is the best result I’ve come to so far. Perhaps I’ll revisit these topics again in the future. For now, I’ve said what I feel the need to say.