...strong encryption in a peer-to-peer network without a central corp-hub. But even that wouldn't help if I have trouble trusting people after what society was revealed to be during the pandemic & last years in general. I can see how intimacy, rare and difficult to obtain it is, becomes a currency.

...if the web and by extension VR (d)evolved to small diy-communities, and corporations were nothing but a utility to provide network connectivity like gas or electricity (much like the early days in the 90s) that might help, but I'm not sure I would even trust corp-as-utility unless we had...

Intimacy in the digital age is something I've been thinking about myself lately. I find it difficult/impossible to trust (not only people but also the systems and those running them) enough to allow for self-expression and intimacy, when every step is being watched, and this includes VR...

13/13
As for VR, maybe I can switch to PCVR with Steam/HTC and leave Meta for good. I don't know. I wrote this for my diary, but maybe it's worth sharing. Maybe someone out there has had similar thoughts, felt this loss of trust, and found ways to navigate this.

- the end :)

12/
I still don't know if I can delete my Meta accounts with my real-life friends. We don't talk much anymore because we're in different countries but I don't want to ghost them completely.

11/
Just some thoughts of an oldie who sits here staring at the 2020s social media landscape, feeling disillusioned. I admire people who are out there, sharing, creating, living online like I once did. I wish I could too. Even if Twitter/FB returned to their old selves, it would never be the same.

10/
It's always broadcasting. It could never lead to a sense of intimacy, of being in conversation. It's like degrees of intimacy I found in forums compared to Usenet newsgroups compared to Fidonet newsgroups compared to Zerberus newsgroups compared to the BBS systems I used to dial back in the 90s.

9/
And this is also why I don't post very much on Bluesky and Mastodon - these platforms may be better than the others but the problem may come with scale. These platforms are huge and visible, like shouting from a soap box in Times Square. Too noisy to be truly seen.

8/
That's also why I always hesitate to record videos. I'd like to run a YouTube channel, but I feel like I'd need a mask or a mocap-avatar and voice-mod which complicates the whole thing. And then I wonder: Is what I would have to say or share even worth all that?

7/
I can still get excited about new technology, VR/MR in particular, but each time I put on the Meta headset I have this feeling again that someone may be watching me. It ruins the joy, and I can't imagine ever wearing any of these data-collection glasses Meta has been pushing lately.

6/
My lack of trust intensified even further the better AI models grew to almost perfectly mimic voice and appearance of real-life people, and the more the platform became less for a community but more like megaphones for rich extremists who want push their narratives and expand their power.

5/
I observed how other people changed and seemed to turn into marionettes. But I wasn't immune either. On several occasions I ended up buying junk I wasn't looking for or needed, especially VR and other tech gadgets I used once but never again.

4/
The influencer, performance and attention economy already made me feel bad about myself, but my deeper trust issues go back to Cambridge Analytica. And they only got worse when the platforms turned into machines of opinion-shaping and propaganda.

3/
But it leaves a foul taste in my mouth. Even if leadership changed I don't think I could ever trust it. I'd always self-censor. Every photo, thought, like, view, click would feel like data being harvested. I would always feel watched by bad players waiting for me to drop traces of data to exploit