The simplicity of the past seems the solution for the future
Reorienting My Online Presence
Why have an online presence in the first place?
I would rather not have any online presence. I would like to be known only by the people I want to know me, and those I want to know.
The first category is difficult because they ā friends and some former colleagues ā are dispersed in time and space. The second category is impossible when one is invisible online. Hence, some form of online existence is unavoidable.
Because of work, I need an online presence. There can be an endless discussion about the sense or nonsense of it, but in my profession as a consultant it is. But, if I must have an online presence, it should reflect me, not the expectations placed on me, explicitly or implicitly, by the outside world. Being actively present online is also necessary to prevent the passive traces of my past online presence from dominating search engines ā and thus defining an online persona that is (no longer) me.
In some way, I want to have an online presence. I have an opinion about everything, some expertise in a few things, and simply enjoy writing. I want my ideas and opinions to be out there.
Reorienting away from the usual social media
I left Facebook many years ago. That wasnāt a strategic decision. I just found it boring and saw no added value. I didnāt look for an alternative. Soon after, I also left Instagram. That decision was influenced not only by being bored of it but also by the platform's enshittification and the pressure to share more private content than I was comfortable with. Again, I didnāt look for an alternative.
Around 2022, I also left Twitter, after already being less active since 2019. That was the hardest goodbye. I had a significant number of relevant followers, great conversations, and effectively used it to promote my work, stay informed about the niches of science-policy I was involved in, and to stay in touch with friends and colleagues around the world. But then Twitter became X and turned to garbage.
Micro-blogging, that is what Twitter originally was, however, still suits me, so I moved to Mastodon. Itās reminiscent of Twitter in its early days. Unfortunately, the people most relevant to me either stayed on X or moved to Bluesky. My reach and impact have hence been marginalized by the move to Mastodon. I tested Bluesky and like the platform itself. However, its de facto centralization means enshittification is sure to come. I donāt want to deal with that again and have grown fond of the decentralized Fediverse, with all its quirks. Quality over quantity.
The only mainstream social media I still use is LinkedIn. In consultancy, having at least a basic employment history there is explicitly expected. I struggle with it. Iāve wiped past activity, rarely engage with othersā updates, and only occasionally post formal work-related content. Mostly, I use it as a contact database, and, admittedly, to check who Iāll be meeting. As the feed increasingly resembles Facebook in disguise, I can only hope this accelerates its downfall and with it, the end of my compulsory presence there.
Reorienting away from the usual publication platforms
My move to Mastodon taught me that I appreciate quality over quantity and that I feel more comfortable ā and in some ways better represented ā by the simplicity and functional limitations of alternative platforms.
In recent months, Iāve been pondering what to do with my āpublicationsā and other writings.
For the past three years, Iāve written two Substack newslettersāone on my professional work in the energy transition (RZ Notes), and one on my hobby, ultrarunning (Back to 100 Miles). I still enjoy writing them and appreciate the feedback from a growing number of readers. But the platformās relentless push for growth, new features I donāt need, design geared toward subscriber acquisition, it doesnāt match the online presence I want.
I want people to just read what I write, without navigating popups, cookie banners, or nudges to like and share. So while Iāll keep the newsletters for now, I expect Substackās eventual enshittification also will push me out from there.
As for my old WordPress site, after 15 years, I gave up. I never made it slick or polished, didnāt care for images and design, and ended up using the most minimal template available. In the end, I was running heavy software with expensive hosting just to publish a few pages of text. That no longer made sense.
That brings me to my new website: rzondervan.eu
This new website is essentially a blog. It is powered by BearBlog which describes itself as a privacy-first, no-nonsense, super-fast blogging platform. No trackers, no JavaScript, no stylesheets ā just words.
Iāve been experimenting with its very limited functionalities and design options, and have imported some of my older posts already. I like it. So, this reflection on reorienting my online presence is the first original post in the new setup ā and certainly not the last.
Minimal is the new modern
With my social media presence limited to Mastodon and my bare-bones new website as a repository for my writings, I now have the core of my new online presence in place. Maybe more than just the core. Maybe this is it.
Neither platform is free. I pay about ā¬4 per month for Mastodon.green, and about ā¬5 per month for BearBlog and ā¬2 per month for the domain ā a total of slightly more than ā¬100 per year. Itās ironic that I pay for a social media and a publication platform that offer significantly fewer features than their free mainstream counterparts, and that provide significantly less visibility and impact due to their niche existence.
Still, itās worth it. In fact, itās more than worth it. I save about the same amount by no longer using my previous website host, and more importantly: Iād rather pay in euros than with ads and personal data, mine or that of my readers, the currency of the mainstream platforms. Maybe itās pathetic, but spending ā¬100 per year to be free is a bargain.
Overall, my new minimalist approach to online platforms and online presence mirrors my minimalist approach to ultrarunning and hiking ā and my clean desk policy at the office. It fits me.