Fediverse

The electronic machine you’re operating, and the electrons flowing through it that illuminate the screen constitute a highly ordered abstraction that your human brain interprets to have meaning. The software implementing that abstraction has been structured with paradigms developed over decades with functionality specifically created for you to manage the information displayed to you. Such is the power of these technologies that they are widely regarded to have culminated in a digital information age of revolution. One of the defining moments of that age is the point at which the software, which previously was designed to implement the will and preferences of the user, began changing to instead serve the developer. It could be said that the fundamental philosophy of social media software has become to optimize it such that the user continues to use it while still freely feeding it information and being subject to manipulation.

The abstraction has become hostile, and the tools to manage the information displayed are quickly disappearing as the implementation is abstracted away. The ability to block mimetically harmful information is being designed out of software - exposure to advertising, propaganda, violent or disturbing content, and even the addictive abstractions themselves, have become requirements for use. The filtering and management of information through the hardware and software that you OWN is not just a feature, it is a RIGHT that must be intrinsic to its design.

In my view, the use of blocking technology should not be considered a human social action with emotional weight, but rather a mechanical one like switching off a light or moving an object out of the way. They are information management tools built to serve YOU, the user. If the technology you are using does not serve you, then who are you serving?