← Back to context

Comment by galleywest200

7 hours ago

My rule for 2026 is to limit short-form media. No Twitter/X, no Bluesky, no Mastodon, no Instagram, no TikTok. If it is designed to be short-form (limited characters, quick videos) then it is not for me in 2026.

I had already avoided short-form video but I added short-form text this year.

11 comments

galleywest200

Reply
Insanity  5 hours ago

I stopped watching short form content last year. I’m not on instagram/X etc, only on YouTube.

My only annoyance is that YouTube still insists on shoving them in my face on the app homepage even though I don’t watch them. It just requires a modicum of willpower now not to click and go down the rabbit hole, which I’ll occasionally fail at.

jader201  7 hours ago

The whole world would be a better place if all of these disappeared.

(Add to this YouTube Shorts.)

SilverElfin  6 hours ago

It’s a great rule, but it is still a problem when most of society uses short form stuff. Because they will be influenced by it and they will vote based on it. And they will end up affecting you anyways.

taurath  6 hours ago

I dropped Google news and Reddit in the last few weeks. I have watched several people have nervous breakdowns, coworkers report having to step back from everything, one even said he’d developed a twitch. However informed we desire to be, that desire seems to be usurped by this constant spin-up mechanism of current media.

HN is probably gonna have to go soon too for me, I have enough ways to keep informed, and it’s hard to feel informed while pretending many events that are deeply effecting everyone I know’s lives don’t exist. I don’t particularly want HN to become about US politics, but I also don’t like that ycombinator is run by, for and with people who I don’t share values with.

It seems like the majority opinion is it’s okay to commit moral suicide to make money nowadays - I never previously felt like the word “depravity” could accurately describe the day to day culture of startups and technology. There are many exceptions (enough to not leave the industry entirely) and perhaps it’s the rule that most people are appalled at Thiel, Musk and Altman, but idk. To me the only correct move against a vampire is to not let them into your house.

  • 0xDEAFBEAD  4 hours ago

    "I also don’t like that ycombinator is run by, for and with people who I don’t share values with."

    I think if you are careful to avoid clicking on YC startup ads or applying to YC, and you make sure to write a lot of comments calling for regulatory crackdown on AI†, then you can be fairly certain that you, as an individual user, are not contributing to YC's bottom line.

    † I contributed to the campaign of Alex Bores, running for Congress in NY-12 https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/TbsdA7wG9TvMQYMZj/consider-d...