It all starts with reading. It is so important. Can you enjoy it? Can you read free of distraction? Can you find the most useful articles, phlogs, Gemini capsules, books to read? Can you read with privacy? Can you read without the network getting in the way or without depending on a permanent connection? Can you read something where an unscrupulous other party is not trying to sell you something, not trying to peddle some new ill-conceived BS?
I think enjoyment of reading, finding the most useful sources to read and all these other concerns are something we can work towards.
Subjectively, if I can read whenever I like, with privacy, uncontaminated by the mistakes and agenda of others then I am happy.
For a long time as many others are doing in http(s) land I put energy into finding distraction-minimised approaches to reading such as read-later, with browser plugins, first class browser functionality and apps. Sometimes I even paid for this. All the while I did not think on the fact it was the protocol itself which had led to this sorry state of affairs. Its always turned on, the connection is permanent, every screen of simple text I would like to read can be obfuscated into oblivion by greedy corporates or those who are just out to cause mischief.
This always-on phenomenon, and the unbridled distractions conditioned us, removed our ability to select material to read with a real intent. Maybe it even degraded our ability to think in a focussed way, perhaps reducing the quality of our work.
We have forgotten that we should not be jacked-in all the time. We forgot that good design is always about pulling something apart and understanding its component parts and how they may be fitted together in different ways. Does a piece of software need to be online to function? Should we be conflating content types in a single view without careful constraints being in place? Should BigTech be able to poison search results in any way they see fit? Reductionism again, plain and simple. Make it smaller, tend towards the micro.
