After writing Sunday Dispatches for a long time, being web designer to A list bloggers, he shut everything down and walked away. Paul was always ahead of the curve.
He co-founded Fathom and recently retired from that too.
He has no public presence any more.
I can understand that.
I’m about to pull the plug on my Substack account. I finally deleted X. Once and for all. I’ve deleted the Instagram app from my phone.
Consuming has made me a worse creator. Before social media, I filled notebooks while sitting in cafés. I wrote unread blogs. I created stuff.
Most of what passes for content on social media is trite slop. Perhaps everyone suffers from the same over consumption syndrome.
And social media isn’t what it used to be. Gone are the days when Instagram was about photography. Now it’s sell sell sell, buy buy buy. Or, in my case, bye bye bye.
Recent posts about the changes in the Instagram algorithm make me weary. To succeed, do this. And that. And the other. I just want to post pretty pictures. Meta has signed the death sentence for Instagram. I just can’t be there any more.
I keep saying that recent shifts are part of my post-60 life. It’s the most logical conclusion. What mattered to me before no longer matters. I’m excising large chunks of my life. Even communities I’ve been part of for several years. It’s all going.
What comes next looks like independence. Blogs, logs, status updates. Not reliant on a platform. Not spending hours reading someone else’s stuff.
Refocusing on what adds value.
Back to the tiny web. Small platforms. Niche communities.
Related: Deep Diving into the Analogue World · Antisocial Media · I Don't Want to Be Subject to an Algorithm · The Analogue World · Life Without the Internet