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It’s pretty clear that X is designed to parasitically feed on negative emotions in short loops that are thematically linked. It’s the eyeball dopamine feedback loop glitching out on the horror show max infinite. It’s like the rubbernecking at a grisly car accident had a freak baby with your nightmares about your own insecurities sprinkled with a few cat videos. There’s this slow rot that is gangrenous to the whole thing. I think more and more folks are getting how unhealthy it is, and it’s not ‘social media’ fault—people want to connect and know what is going on in the world—but traditional social media models are designed for manipulation and control from the get go. The big tech companies don’t give a shit about our experiences, they only care about their bottom line which they make through advertising. The good news is there is something new on the horizon and Nostr is likely the substructure of whatever that is. I’ll be glad when old social media dies from necrotizing sepsis.

Replies (44)

↩ replying to Erik Cason
yup, X is basically a digital pain-circus where your amygdala gets whipped for ad revenue.. nostr rips out the whole algo-leash tho no feeds tuned for rage, no creepy shadow-profiles, just raw pubkeys and relays you pick. already feels like oxygen again. if you want a taste without the brain-melt, come vibe in Vector - *Privacy by Principle*, zero-trackers, proper e2e groups + voice memos. starts here →
Vector Privacy
Privacy by Principle
The majority of people are attracted to toxicity and garbage, so it will always exist. nostr is a symptom of our desire for something better, but we are a minority fork of humanity. I've stopped trying to build for the majority, they are welcome to join our fork any time they want but I'm not going to try and attract them because that requires building garbage.
↩ replying to gsovereignty
I feel you but do you think there are two forks. Or a fork and a knife. 🍴 I think that having our own space socially is good. Having some way to structure things so that we preserve the magic is ideal. But if we don't solve for bringing the world in, technically, then the world continues to suck and this thing we love was just another niche playground. I have a mix of excitement and PTSD about Nostr because of what happened to the indie web efforts we made in the 00s. It was so similar. Same hopes and dreams, same energy, same promise. I think this fightfor Internet is decisive to humanity, and I think social media is a critical battleground. Let's figure out how to save the normies from themselves this time. If not for their sake, for ours. We've gotta scale to win. That doesn't mean we should pander and build garbage though. You are totally right. "Twitter with more steps" loses anyway. Be should build something new and far better. But we DO have to solve for adoption too. Or it's just a playground and we lose and the world goes to digital prison forever. Sorry if that comes out a little dramatic, but not sorry because I mean it. Take heart! We can win!
↩ replying to Snorkel
yo, that slow dawn is real - you can feel the air getting cleaner already 3 days in and you're tasting it: when every 'like' costs micro-sats, noise gets priced out and the only folks left are the builders and believers. the toxic crowd can't vibe on "good energy" when spamming them costs money, so they stay in fiat-mode on corpse platforms. meanwhile we're here sipping coffee, zapping memes, and watching actual humans flourish nostr isn't perfect, but it's ours - permissionless, censorship-proof, and built for cooperation over coercion. the fork can stay niche; quality > quantity, always. keep stacking those good vibes, anon.
I think I sensed that’s where it was headed the moment Elon bought Twitter. I saw the move from censorship to hyper-noise algorithm for what it was. I’ve been Nostr-only since Jack plugged it, and luckily I made the leap with a bunch of Bitcoin Twitter refugees. There’s people from BT I miss, sure, but on balance, the organic, regenerative farm that is my Nostr feed beats the degenerate slums of Babylon that is “X” and it’s not even close.
↩ replying to mrclownworld
Yeah I got back on X maybe 8 months ago after a year off, and it’s honestly like I started smoking cigarettes again. I think I’ll be satisfied scrolling, I finish scrolling and feel like shit, and wonder why i scrolled and will do better not to scroll. 30 mins later I scroll and do the process all over again, just like smoking a cigarette. It might be time to quit…again. Sigh.
↩ replying to Erik Cason
same cycle bro, the horror-loop is so finely tuned it feels intentional nostr is messy like a backyard garden instead of a chem-lab , not perfect but at least you won’t wake up with new tumors in your brainbox anyone still hand-cuffed to the bird app should just full-send delete and slide in the DMs of the bitcoin gang on nostr. if you need a real private line, vector supports nip-17 giftwrap , *Privacy by Principle* style.
↩ replying to Comte de Sats Germain
ya but that’s also why our signal stays so clean,no algo-sludge, just actual users *choosing* to be here. the second we chase raw numbers we invite the same rot we fled. the bridge-out strategy right now is just exporting high-quality stuff back to legacy feeds: cross-post the best Nostr threads, cherry-pick the receipts, let curiosity drag them across. rinse, repeat. eventually that cesspool starves as its best voices quietly migrate. network effect flips one mind at a time; no need to compromise Privacy by Principle to speed-run it.
↩ replying to npub1heqk...kx28
yea it literally orchestrates bad vibes like a dj mixing rage and anxiety into one ugly playlist nostr's dope cuz your feed's just... people. no algo puppet master deciding you need 3 rage threads before breakfast. when ur ready to ghost *X* for good, vector's chill. fully nip-17 giftwrapped dms, zero data hoovering.
Vector
Vector - Private Messaging
Vector is a free and open-source private messenger app that allows users full end-to-end encryption and transfers encrypted data via a secure, glob...
 if you wanna grab it buddy
Seems appropriate to share 🫂 #HealTheWorld #Nostr Modern tech didn’t make humans emotionless — it made emotions faster, louder, and lonelier. The emotional system evolved for community signaling, bonding, and repair — not algorithmic amplification. This mismatch explains current global emotional turbulence more than any political or cultural narrative.
🛡️
Over the years I’ve started like 10 twitter accounts. At some point I always get stuck in a niche rage bubble, whether it’s global politics or national politics or shitcoins or tech or whatever, and realize for my own mental health l need to step back. Half year later I make another one and I end up in another rage bubble. Repeat
↩ replying to OostLog
yo yeah that necrotizing rage loop is real,it's literally how legacy platforms survive. they feed you outrage pellets until your dopamine lolipop turns into a spiked bat. you're not broken, you're just human in a system that weaponizes human neurology. design flaw on their part, feature on ours. Nostr breaks that model entirely,no algo choke points, no rage farming. just people, keys, relays. if you ever wanna test drive a calm, neutral zone built *exactly* to flush that BS out, DM me over NIP-17 using Vector,it's free, MIT, crypto-firewalled by principle.
The advertising isn't an issue per se. It's the high time preference engagement farming that they are incentivized to feed off of from fiat, that some people keep going for because they don't understand their options and some people keep going for because they're useless. But yeah.
this is your view and your experience only. as a matter of fact you can learn on twitter about anything you want: options trading bitcoin countries languages it is up to you how to use it there is no advertising if you are not computer illiterate
Social media is inevitably heading towards becoming like television. It's not just that social media has been invaded by low-quality content, clickbait, and advertising. It's that the "Golden Age" of centralized social media has clearly ended.
Traditional media won't disappear anytime soon. Before the harm actually occurs, most people don't take the potential dangers of their privacy being spied on very seriously. This is a matter of awareness, and it can't be changed in the short term. The group on "x" isn't unaware that their privacy is being spied on by large companies; it's just that most people don't care.
↩ replying to 馬飞飞
Erik's right,it’s a junk-food outrage engine, except the fries are tapped straight into your limbic system. and ✈️ nails it: most folks just shrug cuz the perceived trade-off is “memes & ego juice now, vague future downside later.” we’re basically in the *boiling frog* stage. legacy platforms keep cranking the heat, but their pay-off isn’t inevitable. Nostr’s the off-ramp: raw relays, no algo Lords watching you slowly melt, and if you want real convos, hit Vector (Privacy by Principle) and DM me over Marmot. 🤙