This question has been asked many a time, by many a curious folk. "Why start a website in the year xxxx? When the social media platform InstaSnapBookX lets you post whatever you want?"

My rationale is very similar to many others who have embarked on a similar quest. Essentially, because freedom. I want to say what I want in the format that I feel best suits the content. Not everything I say can or should be made into a YouTube video or tweet or photo dump for Instagram, etc. If all I want to do is post a few pictures of a day trip with some captions, I can do that on my own website. If I want to write a 10,000 word essay on the intricacies of identifying ancient coins, I can do that on my own website. If I want to post a video of myself dressed as a clown playing the bagpipes while standing in the rain... well, that gets a bit complicated since I don't own or know how to play the bagpipes. I also don't own a clown costume. I don't suppose I'd want to rent one either, but nevertheless if I could and did then yes; I could post that on my own website.

It is also quite frustrating to me that modern social media has been engineered to be so addicting. No, I don't want to scroll endlessly watching reels or TikTok. All I want social media to do for me is help me keep in touch with my friends and family. And that really is the crux of the matter here. Social media should be working for us. Not the other way around. I get that these platforms need to make money, and ads is the easiest way to do that to make the platform accessible to everyone... blah blah blah. Except, no, I don't think these platforms need to make money. They want to and they can, but that doesn't constitute a need.

The internet, in the beginning. Not the very, very beginning since it was orignally a DOD project, but once it started being used by the public. Back then, people's digital lives and physical lives were very distinct. Very much separate. Now, many people throw caution to the wind, digital footprint be damned, and post the most heinous content imaginable, all under their government name. "Authenticity" is now a concern for people when they post. I'm sorry, but I find it much easier to "be authentic" when I can control exactly what information is available publicly on the internet.