Why Decide to Start a Personal Blog in Early 2024
Perhaps this is not a structured or systematic article, but rather a concatenation of scattered thoughts.
As a post-90s generation, I could be considered half a native of the internet. I started using personal computers from primary school (back then it seemed to be called microcomputers). In middle school, thanks to my mom's need to pass computer-related tests for applying for advanced teaching qualifications, she bought a desktop computer for our home. I probably have more experience using computers than my peers at the time. However, I have never studied programming, and my computer usage mostly involves browsing the web or occasionally playing computer games. At that time, I probably couldn't even imagine having my own website, where people from anywhere in the world could access the content I wanted to present to them just by entering a specific domain name in their browser.
In 2009, when I started university, the rise of the Web 2.0 concept and a series of SNS platforms allowed me to read a lot of interesting texts and further understand various academic fields. It was also during that time that internet users in China (perhaps not limited to China) began to believe that people's creations might not need to be published on their own websites or blogs. The concept of "platform" began to rise, with Facebook, Weibo, Zhihu, and later YouTube, Bilibili, and Xiaohongshu seemingly having an app to meet your diverse needs for media creation, and provide precise audiences matching the content you create. The emergence of TikTok could be considered the endpoint of this wave. It offers a product form that is easy to get addicted to and difficult to quit, extremely manipulative of human nature, and with a very low entry threshold. It also controls both content creators and consumers, keeping most people hooked for a long time.
I am not a user of TikTok. If not for checking whether the products sold on TikTok Mall have price advantages, I probably wouldn't have downloaded this app at all. But I can't say for sure that if I start using this app frequently, I won't become addicted and be conquered by the algorithm it provides. It is said that TikTok's algorithm creates an "information cocoon," where people inside are constantly pushed content in areas they are most interested in and like (of course, content that naturally attracts attention such as pornography, violence, food, and danger is indispensable). However, I don't necessarily agree with the concept of an "information cocoon." TikTok's algorithm engineers may have already considered the factor that you may have seen too much of a certain type of content and might become tired of it. They may even occasionally push you some related content that you are likely to be interested in, or content that you didn't know you might be interested in but is somewhat far from your original interests, in order to test your other areas of interest and provide more long-term service to you. I am not an algorithm engineer, and I have not yet delved into this field of knowledge, but I think the above idea is a very superficial conjecture. TikTok's approach has been imitated by all apps, whether it is Xiaohongshu, which is currently popular in China, or Instagram under Facebook. Although they may not be as extreme and accurate in execution as TikTok, the idea seems to be consistent.
The reason I don't use (to be precise, I don't browse but may search for content on them) these apps is, on the one hand, I don't want to be told what I should and shouldn't see, and on the other hand, I don't want to let this strategy that specifically uses human physiological weaknesses to create content succeed. Moreover, short videos are ultimately a low-threshold and low-efficiency form of media. Educated people should not tolerate such low-density and low-quality information consumption or entertainment forms. Therefore, I prefer to consume textual content, and I am therefore more willing to contribute some textual content. After all, the proportion of textual content on the internet today should have gradually decreased.
Another important reason is, of course, because platforms (especially those in China) heavily intervene in the content you create. They may alter or replace keywords lightly, or even delete them directly. I think this is unacceptable to anyone who values intellectual property rights. Individuals and organizations who accept this reality under pressure from business and survival deserve sympathy.
Finally, I actually didn't have the habit of writing anything before, let alone publishing it. On the one hand, I am afraid that what I write will feel embarrassed, childish, or shy after reading it a few years later. On the other hand, it is also because I rely on my good memory and don't see the need to organize and record many pieces of information. But today, on the one hand, I gradually feel the unreliability of the brain, and on the other hand, I gradually realize that many things, if not written in text form, those topics that you think you have already figured out may still be very chaotic. Wang Xing once quoted Mr. Luo Rongqu on Fanfou, saying, "Thinking is gas, speaking is liquid, and writing it down is solid." I think I probably expressed a similar idea.
February 7, 2024
The above text is based on my original Chinese composition and has been translated into English by GPT-3.5, followed by my proofreading and verification.