Nostalgic for the Circa 2005 Internet? Do the timewarp with me!
I’ve been talking a big talk for years about how I’d deactivate my social media except, oh no! I’m in a field that makes that nigh possible.
But to be honest, I could have left long ago if I really, really wanted to. Instead, I’m embarrassed to say social media has been a desperate compulsion of mine for years. (I was probably in the 99th percentile of users.) That’s despite knowing for a long time now that social media’s utility — at least for me and the work I do, which, if you’re new here, is cultural and specifically musical coverage — has tanked for journalists since Elon Musk acquired Twitter.
Facebook, too, has lately become unusable for me. More than half of the posts are from accounts I don’t follow, posting AI content that is banal at best and disturbing at worst. Just a sliver of some of the shit rammed down my throat in the last 24 hours on Facebook:
I mean, seriously. What the actual fuck? (And why all the creepy babies??? This isn’t Regietheater.)
We’ve all known for years how gleefully tech oligarchs would embrace fascism if there was something in it for them. And yet, I stayed on Facebook after the 2016 election. I stayed on Twitter after it stopped being Twitter. Watching Mark Zuckerberg simper after Trump and Musk pop a Sieg Heil on live television, I regret staying even more keenly now.
As a younger person, I made a promise to myself that my social media use would never exceed the Unholy Trinity: Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. I broke that promise a couple years ago to download TikTok, a platform which, in recent months, provided far more joy and edification than the other three websites combined. But the political theater of its banning, its miraculous unshackling, and the app’s boot-gobbling paeans to Trump have been the stuff of acid reflux. Yet another easy decision.
Going forward, I plan to keep that promise I made years ago. So, no, you cannot find me on Bluesky, Threads, or whatever comes next. Just here. Or my email, which is pretty easy to find.
To be clear, my decision to go dark on social media isn’t animated solely by political principle. I’m not claiming any moral high ground over those who choose to stay, and I guess I’m going to have to embrace FOMO going forward. Now simply seems like the most sensible off-ramp after years of wondering what my life would look like without social media. Even in politically fairer weather, it nibbled away at my (not ample) leisure time, my in-person social gatherings, my attention span, my capacity for long-form thinking… The list is endless.
In the meantime, I’ve created this space to plug some — but, very much by design, not all — of the void left by Facebook, Twitter, et al. Please don’t expect a predictable publication schedule. Please also don’t expect solely professional updates, as I have many loved ones whom I hope will connect with me here as a passive way of keeping in touch. Which is what social media, at its best, was pretty good at.
Drop the Needle
As some feeble attempt at continuity, I’ll sign off posts here with something that’s caught my ear lately. The name comes courtesy of my friends Marc Geelhoed and Jonathan Becker, both of whom host parties of the same name. In the spirit of “drop the needle” aural exams, attendees play their favorite B-sides for showing-and-telling, discussion, or simply to stump one another. (Marc lives in Ann Arbor these days, leading the Detroit Symphony’s live webcast series; JB still bears the torch in Chicago.)
Tonight, on this chatteringly cold Chicago evening — 4°F as of writing, btw — it’s the Frederick Vogelgesang Trio playing the Brahms Horn Trio. As in, Mr. Vogelgesang covers every instrument. Many hat-tips to Roger Kaza for introducing me to this hoot of a recording.
There’s more Vogelgesang to be found on YouTube, mainly violin showpieces with the multi-instrumentalist dubbing over himself on piano. His Carmen Fantasy, for instance: