For years—like actual years—I avoided TikTok. I was convinced the format would be short-lived and not impact how the rest of us were doing content. Then, on a whim, I used the bloody thing. Its algorithm and “For You Page” hooked me.

That has been me with Threads over the last year. I loved Mastodon once Twitter took a nose dive. I still check out daily, but the algorithmic timeline just works better for unearthing things I care about. I’ve curated it over months by liking and engaging with people that align with my interests, so it now surfaces things that I find interesting and save throughout the day for writing about later. 

I’ve been thinking a lot about WordPress and other content creation platforms the last few months, and even been considering other options. In an age where AI feels poised to steal everything from us, I feel the desire to double down and bring my humanity to the things I share and do online. 

I contributed to WordPress years ago, and from the side of a contributor found it hard, even then, to get involved. It took the help of several friends to get me up and running. 

I’m thinking about some future posts I want to write, currently in my backlog, where I want to double down on the creative, manual, process I go through to make things. For another day.

The challenge I see with WordPress is it is not easy to get started. It takes a lot of energy to get up and running on a blog; especially if you care about the design of that blog and want a custom domain. It’s nothing like Threads where you can create an account and post away. The friction between the two is worlds apart. 

It is, however, worth it. Having a presence where I can’t be shut down because of some glitch with a trillion dollar company—well that’s a good thing I think. 

(Via James Giroux)