You Can Just Not Go

Quick piece today about the current state of the internet, for a bigger audience than normal.

You know the restaurant that you used to go to regularly, and you haven’t been to in years?

Of course you do. We all have one.

Maybe the food got worse, maybe it gave you food poisoning that one time, or maybe the restaurant is still perfectly fine and you just got tired of what they were serving.

Whatever the reason, you just don’t go anymore.

You can do that with cyber spaces too.

You can delete the app from your phone, delete the bookmark, close the tab, and never open it again.

You can leave that Facebook group or subreddit that was good three years ago but has been crap for the last two.

Hell, you can delete the Facebook app from your phone if you want.

And just like that restaurant you used to love, it can sit there for years without you, and nothing bad happens to you.

I just left every programming community I was a part of on Reddit because the only thing they wanted to talk about was AI, and it got repetitive and old.

I haven’t had an instagram account for years. I haven’t had the Facebook app on my phone for years. I regularly unsubscribe from YouTube channels that I used to watch every day.

And life is better for it. Nothing bad happened.

So here’s your little reminder that just like that once-beloved restaurant, you can just not go.