jean.lt - notes

What's next?

2026-05-19T00:00:00Z

I don't hate a lot of things, but I can safely say I hate what social media has done to us. It ruined our attention span, it ruined our free time by hijacking our brains, it ruined travelling by creating hyper trends in tourism, it ruined our self-confidence by putting us in competition with each other, it ruined communication by favouring conflictual opinions over detailed and complex ideas, I could go on. Most of social media, if not all, is in the hands of a few tech billionaires with very personal interests who can shape our world through it. I hate the fact that they simply took over human communication and I don't know what to do about it.

It is so ingrained in our way of life, quitting social media feels like quitting social life. I have guardrails around my apps, blocking Instagram during certain hours, accessing social media only on my computer rather than having complete access on my phone, following blogs and news sites through an RSS feed aggregator rather than relying on an algorithm, but it doesn't feel like it's enough. Part of that feeling is the fact it still affects so much of our society. If I'm the only one bothered by it, all these problems will obviously stay and I feel an unjustified anger towards people who just shrug it off. I should be content with controlling my personal use, but when I see the news, the lying, the amplification of far-right ideas, it all feels hopeless.

Did I lose time watching all these hours of YouTube videos, or was I connecting with other humans? I don't think every moment should be productive, who cares if I don't remember all of what I've seen or read, but spending hours on Instagram Reels is clearly mind-numbing. Infinite feeds are designed to keep you hooked, will we ever treat them as addictive activities? Will we ever have any regulation on what these companies are allowed to do? Should I just get along with it? Is social media just a mirror, a way of seeing what our world is made of? Or is it a reason to show the worst part of ourselves, the part that craves attention, that needs to feel important?

These are all the thoughts I've accumulated on this subject for the past few months. It's just a bunch of questions without answers. These sentiments are shared by a lot of people nowadays, it seems to be a big enough market to see more and more companies selling dumb phones. Who knows, maybe some day I'll go back to an old phone with a T9 keyboard and a tiny screen. Or maybe I'll just be in peace with my own dumbed down smartphone and try not to think too much about all of this. In the meantime I'll be watching someone on YouTube trying a retro lifesyle, imagining what useless crap I'd put in my analog bag, and I'll keep wondering if this is worth a try, or if we've all definitely lost our mind to the machine.

Writing to no one

2026-05-08T00:00:00Z

Expressing yourself on the internet is assuming you have an audience, that people are interested in your thoughts. At least that's what I've always felt like, and what kept me from posting much out there.

I don't think I have very original thoughts, and I don't think I'll ever have a tangible audience to speak to, but I've now come to the conclusion that expression is often more about liberating yourself from your own thoughts than telling others what they are. I'm always reading, watching, listening to other people's feelings and opinions, and the activity of paying attention through the web feels lonelier than before. I definitely don't want to drive away my social circles by imposing discussions they don't care about just for my own sanity. Writing a few short thoughts in a journal seems to be a good remedy to this, but why make it public then? Well, to engage in a discussion, even indirectly, you have to share the same space, and writing in a notebook I hide away in my bookshelf is not as stimulating.

I've tried to get away from social platforms that value short and conflictual communication as much as possible, this space here was crafted by me as a bare bones posting device. There's no comments, there's no likes. If someone ever reads what I post and wants to comment or argue: just write your own blog post (or send me an e-mail, I don't know)! I think more people should write some of their thoughts and leave them somewhere accessible. More people should write to no one.

About this website

2025-10-09T00:00:00Z

This website might seem a bit barebones but it was conceived as a minimalist and independant project. I admit, the home page is not very welcoming, but it wasn't really made as a beautiful showcase of my work, more as a simple hub to find more interesting pages. While most of what I store here is for my personal use, it's also an opportunity to easily share stuff around. If someone ever happens to find themself lost on this page you can find useful stuff on the pins page, check out tools I made or view my previous works.