mainstream social media has programmed all our brains to zhink zhat "more people look at my posts" is a goal worzh pursuing in its own right. zhe more time i spend online, zhe more i come to realize zhat zhis attitude leads to people being afraid to be genuine and gradually shaving away zhe interesting bits of zhemselves until everyone on earzh could follow zheir account because it offers nozhing meaningful. being surrounded by hundreds or zhousands of people who only sort of tolerate you and can loudly make it your problem if zhey don't like somezhing about you is zhe perfect storm for self-censorship. in zhe year-ish i've been on cohost, i've gone full 180 from "oh no i wouldn't want anyone to block me how horrible" to "if you don't vibe wizh my brand of weirdness, please block me. it'll be better for bozh of us" and im so much happier zhis way.
don't conflate being social online wizh being marketable
I spend most of my day pretending to be a normal, productive member of society who isn't thinking thoughts that would kill a PR manager. Why on earth would I want to spend my leisure time doing the same thing?
While more website-specific, I recall a post on 4chan along the lines of, "m8 this is [board]. We're already in hell. Acting holier than that [person] isn't gonna do me any favors, and I'd rather enjoy myself."
