What is the Autoclast?
The Autoclast is not a car blog. It’s a portmanteau of “Autocrat” and “Iconoclast”; in a perfect world, a spiritual descendant of “The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table”.
I rarely do social media anymore; I won’t say what I do, but I will say the ones that come up most often, I no longer use. I feel they’re just garbage, nothing but ads and political spam, and on some platforms, quite a bit worse.
When I want to share something with friends and families, I use my website. Some things – most things – are public, but some are not.
When I think about the development of social media, I think of the development of media in the past, and how often it has been advertising-based. Newspapers, magazines, radio, television: Here is some entertainment, perhaps here is some news, and alongside all of the are some ads. These days, even if you pay for access to a streaming service, you’re still likely to get ads.
Traditionally, advertising was brokered by intermediaries. With social media, anyone can create an account and start spewing ads. They can join online forums and participate anonymously or via automated bots. The barrier to entry is so low, anyone can pump a message to thousands of people easily.
There’s a notion that lowering barriers to entry allows more voices, a positioning of democracy over gated access. However, the volume of messages, coupled with some people being clever with algorithmic manipulation, makes the experience worse. There are countless pages, sites, channels, and other means of distribution that no one can be equipped to understand deeply.
All of that is before we get into shortform swipable formats that have emerged lately.
Hence, my anti-social media. A website I control, which I can use to share with family and friends.