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Post update and Mastodon verification
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AlexzanDev committed Jul 12, 2023
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6 changes: 3 additions & 3 deletions content/posts/why-this-blog.md
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Expand Up @@ -9,15 +9,15 @@ summary: "Why I decided to create this blog, and why blogging should live on."

The internet is currently a dumpster fire. Well, at least social media are. Twitter is killing itself (or it's being killed, it depends on the point of view), Reddit is struggling with protests and private subreddits, because they thought that limiting the APIs, an idea copied from [none other than Mr. Elon Musk](https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/reddit-blackout-protest-private-ceo-elon-musk-huffman-rcna89700), was a good thing, and hundreds of millions of people are doomscrolling on TikTok watching questionable videos like there's no tomorrow.

You know, I appreciate the concept behind social networks: they give you a space with a potentially enormous audience where you can share whatever you want, but also keep in touch with your friends or catch up on the latest news. At the same time, though, your space isn't exactly yours, but it's owned by who manages the company or the group of people behind the social network, and it can potentially be taken away from you for whatever reason at any moment.
You know, I appreciate the concept behind social networks: they give you a space with a potentially enormous audience where you can share whatever you want, but also keep in touch with your friends or catch up on the latest news. At the same time, though, your space isn't exactly yours, but it's owned by those who manage the company or the group of people behind the social network, and it can potentially be taken away from you for whatever reason at any moment.

Most people probably don't care about this, but some, me included, do. And is there a solution out there? Yes, and it's called a **personal website**. I've always wanted to create a personal website, mostly just as a hub to let people know where they can contact me if needed. I've shared most of my thoughts on Twitter and some other social networks in the last few years, but there are two main problems with this.
Most people probably don't care about this, but some do, me included. So, is there a solution for this? Yes, and it's called a **personal website**. I've always wanted to create a personal website, mostly just as a hub to let people know where they can contact me if needed. I've shared most of my thoughts on Twitter and some other social networks in the last few years, but there are two main problems with this.

I've already explained the first one so I won't repeat myself. The second is that if you want to write on a social network, you have to consider that people aren't going to read something longer than 300 characters because they're lazy. Some social media are also not a good place for walls of text in general: Facebook and Tumblr may be, but surely Twitter or Instagram aren't. So, what's the solution? You guessed it, a website.

Before social networks became mainstream, a lot of people had a website to express their feelings, their thoughts and everything that came up in their minds. They even communicated with each other in some ways, thanks to the so-called trackback and pingback, something that is no longer used nowadays, but still included in some CMSs like WordPress. And it was... cool. But let's be honest, why do the majority of people prefer creating a personal space on social networks and not on the good old blogs? Because they're easier to use! Convenience, however, comes at a cost: you own nothing.

I started reflecting on this after Twitter began to fall off and people rushed to find an alternative: we have a lot of options today, but while they might be good, there's always this problem of the ownership of the content you make (unless you host by yourself something). Everything can disappear in the blink of an eye, but that's not all: for me, at least, a simple Twitter or Instagram account does not represent a "personal space". You can customize pretty much nothing, you can't make it what you want.
I started reflecting on this after Twitter began to fall off and people rushed to find an alternative: we have a lot of options today, but while they might be good, there's always this problem of the ownership of the content you make (unless you host everything yourself). Everything can disappear in the blink of an eye, but that's not all: for me, at least, a simple Twitter or Instagram account does not represent a "personal space". You can customize pretty much nothing, you can't make it what you want.

With websites, though, the situation is different. When you create a website, you're free to do whatever you want with it. You can write as much and as long as you want, you can customize every page down to the smallest detail and so on. It's yours, and you have the mission to make it feel yours. Oh, and most importantly: you don't have to worry about a mysterious algorithm and an influx of people that might be good or annoying, depending on what you write and your opinions. I could even write a thousand words about privacy, but I'm not going to do that because you already know what happens to your data when you use a social network, especially mainstream and closed source ones.

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<a class="footer-item" href="mailto:&#097;&#108;&#101;&#120;&#122;&#097;&#110;&#064;&#097;&#108;&#101;&#120;&#122;&#097;&#110;&#046;&#109;&#101;" aria-label="E-mail">
<i class="icofont-email"></i>
</a>
<a style="display: none;" rel="me" href="https://mastodon.online/@alexzan">Mastodon</a>
</div>

{{ range .Site.Params.footer_rows }}
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