starting a blog

posted on Jan 22, 2025

danny caballero

a blog?

I’ve been thinking for a while about an outlet for the learning, thinking, and reading that I have been doing. I spend a lot of time thinking about my work as a teacher, a researcher, and a union organizer. I am also a parent, a partner, and a friend. I have been thinking a lot about how these roles intersect, and how being online affects them and me.

For a while now, I has used social media to share things about myself, my friends, my family, and my work. But, as more and more of my interactions become digital; as we have become more distant and isolated; and as the algorithmic rot that is Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have become more apparent, I have been thinking about how I can be more intentional about my online presence.

I’m not chastising those that use social media. I still use it. You can find me on Bluesky, and GitHub, but each of those is an intentional choice, with a limited profile and interactions. I am in the process of removing myself from Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms. I am sad to lose the connections to family and friends there, but I am having deep feelings about the role of these platforms in the world, and who controls them.

why?

My reasons for removing myself from those platforms are many, but they boil down to a few key points:

• I don’t trust the companies that run them. They have demonstrated themselves to be bad actors when it comes to privacy, security, and democracy.
• I don’t trust the algorithms that run them. They are closed, proprietary, and designed to maximize engagement, not to inform or connect.
• I don’t trust the people that run them. The billionaire class that controls these companies are interested in power, wealth, and control not in safety, democracy, or community.

This view comes from my own experience, but also from the work of others. Of course, there are great readings on this subject like The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff, and The Rot Economy by Ed Zitron. In fact, Ed’s podcast Better Offline is a great resource for thinking about how to be more intentional about our online lives.

I have also seen the effects of these platforms on my students, my friends, and my family. The new reality is that there are few places online where we can be free. The internet is a series of walled gardens, controlled by a billionaire class that is more interested in extracting every bit of data from us to sell it back to us as ads for products and services we don’t need.

But it is more sinister than that. They have and will continue to use our data and platforms to manipulate us, to divide us, and to control us. Their end game is to make us into consumers, not citizens. The future they plan is one where we are all serfs to their whims.

I don’t want that future, not for me, not for my family, not for my students, not for my friends, not for my coworkers, and not for my community.

how?

I am starting this blog as a way to maintain a connection to those folks. Sure, it’s an older approach, but it is one that each of us can control. I can share my thoughts and views here, you can read them if you want. I can share more work here, and you can read it if you want. I can share more about my life here, and you can read it if you want.

You get to choose how much you engage with me and my ideas. There’s no algorithm deciding what you see. There’s no billionaire class deciding what you see. There’s no data being collected about you. There’s no ads being sold to you. There’s no manipulation of you. There’s just me, sharing my thoughts, my work, and my life with you.

I have posted a few things from my past writing here. I will try to post more regularly in the future. I can’t promise consistency or coherence, but I hope you participate in the rejection of the algorithmic rot that is social media and find ways to create a more open, free, and democratic internet.

If you have thoughts, ideas, or feedback, I’d love to hear it. You can email me at [email protected].