I was too young to remember, but for those old enough to have watched “Dr. Quinn medicine woman” during the height of its popularity, was the show controversial? Wife and I are watching it and I can’t help but feel that it would be branded “woke” nowadays. Shows how far national discourse shifted.

Has anyone figured out why Reels algorithm is SO bad? No matter what I watch or engage with, it trends toward people fighting, thirst traps and racism? Cute cat videos turn into homophobia in 10 swipes. Is it just rage farming /engagement bait? Snapchat’s algorithm is just as bad.

Any free time I gain as a result of the tiktok ban is being redirected to real life activities, bluesky, and YouTube. Meta isn’t getting an extra minute of engagement from me.

As much as I’ll enjoy breaking the iron grip tiktok had on my attention, there was a powerful monoculture the app built that spanned ages, languages and more I’ll miss. Suddenly many of us had familiar jokes, memes and so on. Fewer of us were ‘out of the loop’ of popular culture and it was nice.

I will forever have a soft spot for this aesthetic.

Finally deactivated my account on the other site and deleted the app now that more than 50% of my follow list has a presence here. This feels like stepping into the fresh air by comparison.