It's a nice coincidence to have Cory Doctorow @pluralistic arguing for human curated social media feeds (https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/19/gimme-five/) in my inbox after finishing a video essay in the same vein last night (https://youtu.be/QEJpZjg8GuA?si=qV__mP_inoH3NRxH) that dovetailed nicely.

From the post:

"When someone you follow - a person - posts or boosts something into their feed, there is a human *intention. It is a communicative act. It can be very communicative, even if it's just a boost, provided the person adds some context with their own commentary or quoting. It can be just a little communicative, too - a momentary thumbpress on the boost button. But either way, to read a feed populated by people, rather than machines, is to be showered with the communicative intent of people whom you have chosen to hear from."*

This gets at the essence of why I've found myself primarily on the fediverse the last couple of years, the choices to be on a specific instance, to follow specific people, and to gradually expand that network by following accounts I see with posts I like either a) on my server or b) boosted by someone I already follow is more under my control and curated by me. It also feels more manageable in that the feed isn't infinite, so while I am on the fediverse daily I'm not doomscrolling nearly as often--though it still happens with the state of the world being what it is.

Plus of course I know I will see what the people I follow post.