The Thursday Dispatch - 4 September 2025
Instagram, for the first time in its 15-year history, released an iPad app yesterday. I hate it, and it makes me hate modern-day social media even more. It’s a reminder of what Instagram has become. What started out as a place to share photos online with your friends has become a wasteland of algorithmic shit, a service that seeks to serve you content it thinks you like over simply showing you what your friends and family are up to. What could have been a pleasant experience of dozens of your friends’ photos laid out potentially in a grid that would utilize the canvas it had to work with on the iPad instead has tons of wasted space and is basically a Reels machine.
It’s not like good experiences with photo-sharing apps don’t exist. I’ve raved about the paid photo community Glass and its iPad app (and its web layout) before. It’s simply beautiful. I would love a photo experience like this with friends and family.
It’s a shame really that social media has become what it has. My Facebook feed is mostly full of politics these days. I don’t disagree that the current administration here in the USA needs to be called out on a daily basis, but I know there’s more than this going on in people’s lives. I ran away from Twitter when Space Karen took over. I spend most of my social media time on Mastodon on a small instance that supports inclusion and feels like one of the safer spaces I’ve come across online.
My safest space though is definitely this website I run. It’s my private island that I allow people to visit. It’s my quietest space in a time when I’m hungry for more peace. I still dream of a time when I can load up my feed reader and have a section on there full of the things my friends have shared to their personal sites. That, to me, is the perfect social media. Conversation would be had in person instead of a comments section. Truth be told, this does happen with this site. I have a couple of friends who will read my posts and a few days later will discuss things in a way that lets me know they’ve actually read it. It feels good to know they took the time to care enough. As much as it’s cathartic for me to simply post, it’s good to know I’m not posting for nothing besides the cathartic side of it.
All of this is to say, if I disappear off social media, it’s not personal towards anyone on it. The experience just sucks and why would I spend time on something that sucks? There are better places I can spend my time. Maybe we’ll end up reclaiming society because of all of this. You know, touching grass and having dinner parties. We’ll see.
Weekly Photo
I was gone for a week for work. Griffey held a grudge for about a day. 24 hours later, the little guy forgave me and has been extra clingy since.
Weekly Links
JA Westenburg’s home screens - JA shared their very minimal home screens that focus on digital minimalism and getting work done on their devices over other things. Mine are laid out similarly. I should share my setup soon.
Peter McKinnon’s blackout out everyday carry - I like the setup, though some of it is pricey. There are cheaper alternatives out there, however. This has me thinking about my wishlist for my birthday and Christmas a bit.
Songs In the Chaos
This is my weekly list of songs that either caught my attention or came to mind this past week. I post these throughout the week on a site called Crucial Tracks, where they’re also added to a playlist on Apple Music. Feel free to follow me on either space.