#social media

Reasons. Don’t judge.

@kiakamgar

Yeah I know, I use it. But I use Brave to watch things… so no ads!

But today Brave did an update (1.91.178) and it plastered ads all over the place!

I know it’ll get fixed, but what got my goat wasn’t Brave, but the amount of ads on even the shortest of videos!

Hence why (one of many reasons) I point people to my Odysee profile rather than my YouTube channel.

YouTube is good for being found, but sucks for embedding and watching (without an ad blocker)

I’ve been off social media for a while. I do dip into one of the platforms now and again, but my blog is where I do my posting.

My online reading is via my RSS reader, Bubbles, Bear blog discovery, and Pika Pulse. The latter is new, and in beta.

We all know that social media platforms are powered by an algorithm. We also know that their main function is to keep you on the platform for ads.

So why bother shouting or attention while fighting an algorithm and have ai scrap your work and have no one see it?

But then again, why post in your blog, on your own domain/platform, for the same result?!

For me, I post to share and get tings off my chest. I don’t post to gain followers.

So having little to no interaction doesn’t mean someone (or many) aren’t reading and enjoying your art.

Ask yourself this… Do you interact with every blog post YOU read?

Just keep doing you.

Couple of things…

Agree with the RSS thing, however my workflow is: RSS ‘as my social media’.

I left social media but kept YouTube (for reasons), and 𝕏 (just because, but very rarely read/interact) so have my RSS app (Reeder) honed to what I want to be ‘exposed’ to.

And yes, reading in the RSS app doesn’t bring the personality of the writer, but it does help me to have a single place to see everything.

So my ‘flow’ is to scroll/read within the app and open things that intrigue me, like your post ;-)

Regarding the iPhone, I’m this close [visual of my thumb and finger an atom apart] to getting rid of mine, getting an iPad mini with a SIM, reviving my old original red Nokia 8210 and calling it a day.

That way I have a phone for emergencies, and a ‘computer’ to do the things I need to without being chained to a smartphone that’s invading my head space.

Smartphones have become this thing that we NEED to have.

I disagree.

I come from the time of Rolodex, pen, paper, and floppy disks, so going back to a simpler time with the occasional tech use is what I’m trying accomplish.

This is a reply to a post by Jon.

My first idea of leaving social media and all its shitdoms was the better idea.

So back to having my own feeds and platforms etc.

This workflow a great way for me to write and have a single place for all my output, I can then decide where best it should be posted.

The first step was taken, now the finale…

I wrote the obligatory cheesy ‘goodbye’ post…

After months, if not years, of putting off removing myself from the platform, today I decided to just pull the band-aid and do it.

I read a great post by Kev and replied via email.

In that email I wrote a few lines I thought would be great to share with you…

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST – social media is such a shit show!!!

I’ve stopped using social media for a while now, but after ‘checking in’ to see what’s going on I got filled with absolute rage!

I actually deleted everything except 𝕏 and LinkedIn, for ’news’ and ‘business’ respectively, but fuck me, it’s such a shit show!

It depends on what you ’need’ social media for, but for me, it’s a huge distraction. And I’m fed up with all the rage-baiting, shit-posting, ai slop ‘content’ that’s being posted.

So today I deleted all the apps from my iPhone to regain time, and sanity.

I know, I know, I’ve been beating this drum for a while. But it’s gotten to a stage where I really can’t hack it anymore. It’s not good for my mental health and I’m really just wasting time.

Not only that, but from a business standpoint, it seems I’m getting more work via word of mouth, my newsletter and general SEO than I to by posting on social media.

Going forward I’ll be focusing publishing my knowledge, thoughts, journey etc. on this blog and sharing via the newsletter, and Telegram channel.

And please feel free to share this post/email with those who would benefit from my them. The more the merrier!

What do you think about the direction social media is going?
And, do you see yourself removing yourself from it at some point?

I’d love to know your thoughts.

Yes, LinkedIn is cringe. And I hate it with a passion. However, I’m still drawn to posting my ‘BS’ for ‘reach’, but guess what…

I get better connections, conversations, feedback, and even better (more) work, via my ‘What would Kia do?’ newsletter!

I think I’ll be deleting that shit hole of a ‘social media’ pretty soon.

Do you have a newsletter or blog I should know about? Hit reply (below) and let me know!

This will only apply to AI tools that respect this setting

Well there goes that.

Seems like they’ve removed the ‘respect this setting’ text from the new version of the layout, but do you trust that it won’t be if you set it

Problem?

Well not really a problem, but I want to read better quality posts.

I find social media, and LinkedIn specifically (as I’m on here quite often) isn’t great for personal insights on subjects.

All I see is more and more fluff, back-patting and sales.

Yes they have a place and LinkedIn is the place for that, but there are better platforms for find more in-depth articles in a particular topic.

So I’m going to give Substack a try to see what’s there.

Mind you, I won’t be using it as a newsletter, as I have my own, but it’ll be nice to see actual articles from real people that aren’t just ‘selling’.

You can follow my on Substack here… @kiakamgar

So you have, or know of a Substack I should read? (comment: text: let me know!)

I’m so passionate about my disgust of ai that I went through my whole LinkedIn connections and disconnect with all who have shoehorned ‘ai’ into their tagline.

No regrets.

Ooops, I mean related.

*sorry not sorry!

When I scroll through social media, especially LinkedIn, I get hit with the a wall of ai related posts that do nothing to help anyone.

The ‘LinkedIn ai experts’ are all trying to make a name for themselves in the space by throwing away their dignity and shit posting for clicks and attention.

I mean fine, if that’s what you want to be known for.

But even some of them are starting to publish posts on how ai is taking over the timeline!

You can’t make this shit up!

How do you feel about ai?
Has it impacted you in a negative way at all?

Send me your (comment: )

Are non binary people allowed to use computers?

— Lee Hurst (@LeeHurstComic) July 14, 2025

I’d like to bring your attention to a great short film by Ali Gallop about what the internet is supposed to be.

If you’ve been following me for a while, you’d know how I feel about social media, and more importantly ai.

Why do I hate ai so much?

I know people use ai for all sorts of things. I also know that it can be a valuable resource of knowledge.

But at what cost?

The cost I foresaw was the downright thievery of the data set.
The ai slop we all now see over taking social media.
The bombardment of shit blog posts with no soul.
The dangers of powerful ai content to sway public opinion.
The emergence of ai expert tech bro gurus

etc.

So the ‘dead internet theory’ isn’t/wasn’t a myth, but it wasn’t 100% correct either.

What the Ali’s video shows is that there are many more real people creating great art, and many of them share that art on…

THE FREE INTERNET!

So keeping the internet open and free, away from big tech, large corps., money hungry tech bros and the like is OUR responsibility.

So what’s the best plan?

To keep posting your thoughts, ideas and sharing knowledge via your own platform and stop feeding ai with your hard work.

Read what’s going on and use tools like Cloudflare to block ai from the scraping your art!

Hit reply to this email, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

A great short from about the state of the internet by Ali Gallop.

I have a love relationship with the internet. However, I have a hate relationship with the way big tech and corporations are trying to take it away from what is was supposed to be.

And I’m seeing more and more posts and videos like this one that brings me hope that we can pull it back form the clutches of the greedy and back into the hands of us who simply want to share out passions, hobbies and life.

The first step is to remove oneself from their platforms, buy a domain name and start posting and connecting.

“Make art. Not content.” has been my mantra for years. So when I see posts or videos online where others have had the same thoughts, it light up my day.

Social media has turned into a shit-show of tech bro mafia boss type figures who don’t give a shit about you, your art, or society.

They only care about quantity and the profits they can make from your limited attention spans. Hence why ai is being push to heavily

There’re times when you’re head down in the zone that you forget things that you should do.

It’s unavoidable, annoying, and anyone can fall victim, no matter how well organised you are.

I’ve become one of its victims!

For the last few months I have been head down working on a large project and it’s been taking a lot of my time, and I’ve been in the zone and loving it!

Hence the lack of posting, making videos and doing TikTok dances from me. (The latter is on my private OnlyKia site)

The new project a slight departure to what you may know me for, but being a self-proclaimed Tech Minimalist/Generalist, even though generalists are often frowned upon, I wear it as a badge of honor.

It’s has grown me as a person. Also, I now have yet another tool in my professional toolbox!

I can’t talk too much about the details, but one of my very first MacJunky clients contacted me to help them build a website. Ok, nothing too complex I thought, until we had the meeting.

It’s turned into a full e-commerce site with connections to SAP, to be available in 3 different world regions, and with a bunch of external connection points.

Ok, not just a simple ‘website’ then.

So don’t ever listen to the ’expert’ online gurus who tell you to specialise in one singe area and ’niche down’, because it’s a lie, for most.

Having a general niche that you’re known for is always a good thing, otherwise you won’t ever be able to market yourself.

If you market to to everyone, you market to no one

– Some boffin at some point has said this.

There are MANY people out there, like me, who are interested in many things and only by doing them will you understand your full true worth.

Also this past few months, I’ve been building barns and doing some ground work for an open air art museum for my cousin, and even rebuilding and upgrading parts for my truck.

You are capable of everything and anything, it’s just your mind holding you back due to lack of experience. And experience, as you know, comes from doing, not (over) thinking!

Anyhow, hope to post more soon about the project, but for now here’s a random post

Have an awesome day!

Kia.

I’ve been putting off sending this email for a while but sometimes, like a band-aid, you have to rip it off and deal with the pain quickly.

This is goodbye from this newsletter, as I will finally be shutting it down on Friday 31st January 2024. However, we can still be connected via social media or my Telegram channel.

I’ll also be creating a brand new newsletter in the future, so if you prefer email (like I do) you can pre-register for it below.

Newsletter
Telegram
Social media

If you’d like to know why I’m making this decision, let me know. Maybe I’ll make a video about it.

Have an awesome day, and hope to see you on the other side!

Kia.

And it pretty much sums up why I’m using it less and less. And why I prefer to post more here on my personal website.

10 years ago social media used to be an escape from reality.

Today, the reality is an escape from social media.

— Marius (@MariusWriter) December 19, 2024

For the 1,534,289th time, I’ve deleted all my social media accounts. Every single one!

Why you ask?

In the past I used to be heavily on social media for connection. Heck I met some awesome friends in real life on there and they have become some of my best friends.

But over the years, social media has changed into a shouting match of people wanting to be seen and wanted. That’s not what I want, or need.

I’ve always been the type of person who likes their own company and happy doing things on their own without any input or distraction.

I’m outgoing, I’m in no way an introvert, but having headspace to do, think, and just be is way more interesting to me that being online for vanity metrics.

Recently I opened up every singe social media account I could for my business for outreach and SEO, but I soon realised I was spending more time on the platforms that doing actual work.

Not only work, but doom scrolling and wasting, as I said above, headspace.

So a few days ago, I deleted them all and will only posting here on my own platform, on 𝕏 and LinkedIn for work.

Taking in back to the old ways of having personal blogs where we can share thoughts, ideas and show who we really are without craving metrics is the way to go.

How about you?

Technology is great, but it having a hold on your time is the worst thing about it. And it can cause more harm to your brain than initially thought.

I recently removed all my shorts from both my YouTube channels because I hate watching brain-dead short videos, so why should I produce it?

Here’s a great conversation with @JonHaidt on how social media and less focus damaging society as a whole.

My social media use has been scaled back, as I prefer to write here on my own blog and platform than shouting into [someone else’s] void.

I love videos. Making them, watching them, analysing them. But I have an addiction problem when it comes to being lured into one with a clickbait thumbnail.

I love videos. Making them, watching them, analysing them. But I have an addiction problem when it comes to being lured into one with a clickbait thumbnail.

On this fine sunny Sunday sitting in the garden while I dog sit for a family member, I think about the awesome  Chrome/ Brave/ Firefox extension I installed a while ago called  Clickbait Remover for Youtube.

So just wanted to share that tidbit on information.

Enjoy the rest of your sunny Sunday!

The less we have, the more time we have. But having extra time for ourselves doesn’t mean doom-scrolling for fear of missing out.

Want to simplify your business workflow? Hire the Tech Minimalist!

I have a love/hate relationship with social media. I love the fact I can connect with people around the globe. But hate the grind and the complex it is now.

Emma Wilson’s Post

Update:
This experiment has turned into something better than I ever could imagine!

My daily (yes daily, and people stay subscribed) newsletter has become my personal ‘social media’ filled with professionals whom I actually interact with and have great conversations with… Via EMAIL!

No algorithms, no fluff, just great connections!

Click here to subscribe to my newsletter

This is an ongoing theme with online marketing, and I’ve come to realise I need to adhere to this rule, because my content marketing, emails and the things I post have been all over the place, even though it’s still tech-related.

This is an ongoing theme with online marketing, and I’ve come to realise I need to adhere to this rule, because my content marketing, emails and the things I post have been all over the place, even though it’s still tech-related.

• You can talk directly to them
• You can provide the right value
• You can make the right content

This is an ongoing theme with online marketing, and I’ve come to realise I need to adhere to this rule, because my content marketing, emails and the things I post have been all over the place, even though it’s still tech-related.

So how do I ‘fix’ this?!

It’s been a long hard brainstorming session with myself and the internet, a bunch of sleepless nights and my inner ghostly voice saying… ’let go’.

Letting go of things is hard for anyone, even though I talk about this with my clients when coaching and implementing the right tools for them to use, it’s hard to let go of something you’ve been used to for years.

So what am I letting go of?

MacJunky, my brand and company that I’ve built over the past 14 years has been the centre of my work life and has enabled me to work with some amazing clients, but it’s not a brand that screams ‘Tech Minimalism’ or anything I do right now in a way I’d like it to.

I am The MacJunky, I will always be The MacJunky and I will still keep The MacJunky name, however, Tech Minimalism is something I want to focus some of my time on.

As you’ve probably noticed, if you’ve been a follower, I’ve toyed with a bunch of ideas, different names and branding, and the only one that works for me is me, my name, my full name!

Because no one can be ‘you’ right?

So, now you know a little history, it’s time to wind down the MacJunky email list that I’ve been running over years as it’s more an ‘Apple-related’ list, even though I’ve been trying to pivot it, it hasn’t worked successfully, so starting a new list, with fresh faces, ideas and the right content for the right audience is the best way to move forward.

Let me know what you think by replying to this email (if you’re reading this via email) or contact me via my site as I’d love you to be on this new journey of mine!