I LOVE YOU, MOVE IN WITH ME TO NOSTR

Like Cassandra, who had the misfortune of foreseeing the fall of Troy and not being believed, we find ourselves in a moment where many people are warning about the “enshittification” of the Internet and our social networks — and NO ONE REACTS.

THE BIG PROBLEM

Browsing the internet and scrolling through our social media feeds is becoming an increasingly shittier experience (hence the term made popular by Cory doctorow “enshittification”).

Any user of #instagram, #linkedin or #twitter (I refuse to call it X) has seen how, year after year, it’s become harder to see only what actually interests them in their feed. More and more ads and suggestions have slipped in to steal our attention, and we can’t do anything about it. And now, with the speed at which AIs are regurgitating content, it’s becoming even more obvious.

So why do we keep using them? What is it, really, that makes us loyal to these platforms with abusive practices that are eroding our lives and our attention just to extract money from advertisers?

OUR PAST AND OUR FRIENDS ARE ANCHORED TO THOSE PLATFORMS

I have many friends who’ve been using “insta” or Twitter since the very beginning. They’ve posted religiously every day — photos of their lives, their successes, their failures. Instagram has become their public album, and now they can’t imagine leaving that platform behind.

Especially because, today, for them to start over on a new social network (#nostr or whatever it may be) would mean leaving behind all that “content” that took years of work — and in the case of accounts with many followers, it would mean leaving behind the entire community they’ve carefully cultivated day after day for years.

That makes the “exit cost” of these platforms feel far too high.

It’s not that easy to leave everything behind. And for many, it ends up feeling like a “lesser evil” to swallow between 40% and 70% of content they never asked for.

On top of that, it’s become a snake biting its own tail: since all our friends are in the same place, all tied there and unable to leave, if I want to know what my friends are posting, I have no choice but to keep using the platforms I increasingly hate.

IF ONLY…

I would love to be able to tell them: “LEAVE IT!”, come to #nostr!, and for that not to mean asking them to leave everything behind. But… how do you ask someone to abandon:

a posting history that represents years of work?

their friends who aren’t going to move?

or the algorithm that knows them so well?

Because they would find themselves in the exact same situation I’m in: their friends would still be there, and if they wanted to stay in touch with their social circles, they’d have to keep the app with their account and would end up forced to keep using those damned platforms.

So… how do we get out of this “catch-22”? This snake biting its own tail…

WE ARE MISSING BRIDGES

Everything would be simpler if it were EASY for people to migrate their content and leave a clear trail so their friends could do the same.

But for that, we’re missing “bridges” , simple ways for someone to “export” their content from Instagram and “repost” it on Nostr with references to the original dates. That alone would remove part of the friction; at least they could feel like they’re continuing their feed on Nostr instead of STARTING FROM SCRATCH.

And the reality is that Big Tech platforms make it especially difficult (they don’t want you to leave).

But if we all start walking the path, little by little we’ll have less and less need to go back to those platforms that keep looking, day after day, for ways to keep us trapped in their kingdoms. Because let’s not forget: without us, they don’t have a business model.

WHAT IS NOSTR?

Some of you might be wondering: What is this thing called “Nostr”? Isn’t it just another app that’s going to lock me into yet another ecosystem?

The short answer is no, but there are many nuances. To begin with, Nostr is not an app or a platform; it’s a “protocol.” Like the Internet and its https. And just like any http link, which you can choose to open in whichever browser or app you prefer, Nostr offers something similar: you have your identity (your npub), and you can view your content in whichever app or client you like best, or that best fits the kind of social experience you’re looking for.

Based on that, what makes it most different from the social networks we’re used to — like Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. — is that, since you can access your identity from different clients, as long as you have a backup of your private key, you truly own your online identity and can move from one client to another freely WITH ALL YOUR CONTENT, CONTACTS, ETC.

These words might sound like gibberish to you, but in the coming years it will become more evident than ever how important it is to have a digital identity where you have freedom of expression and a direct distribution channel with your people — one from which NO ONE CAN EVICT YOU.

For me, what makes Nostr revolutionary lies in three things, two of which I’ve already mentioned:

• IDENTITY: it belongs to you.

• INTEROPERABILITY: you can move across all the Nostr websites and apps that emulate the social media experiences we’re used to and many other utilities as well. In fact, several Nostr clients even make it compatible with other decentralized social networks like Mastodon (ActivityPub) and Bluesky.

• And finally, the cherry on top of Nostr: ZAPS. The ability to send and receive tips in tiny fractions of #bitcoin for any piece of content, to any user, instantly.

ZAPS: MONETIZING YOUR CONTENT DIRECTLY FROM YOUR FOLLOWERS

Zaps are tips that come directly from people who find value in what you publish. They are micropayments in the form of “sats,” fractions of a bitcoin (whose value keeps increasing), and a powerful reason why I spend less and less time on other social networks accumulating “likes” with no real value — likes that only feed the algorithm — and more time on NOSTR interacting with humans who publish valuable notes, hoping that the generous souls who come across their art or creations will consider them valuable enough to send a tip.

It’s crazy how much the kind of content you publish can change when your incentive isn’t to feed an algorithm, but to provide real value to other human beings around the world. While the Twitter/X algorithm favors incendiary content that outrages people, Nostr’s incentives reward those who contribute the most value to the network and to others.

A MORE VALUABLE EXPERIENCE THAT IS NOT BASED ON ADVERTISING

It was on Nostr that I first heard the concept of “value for value” (v4v), and the community is on a mission to turn v4v into an alternative to ad-based revenue models. Because we need to be the change we want to see in the world.

And Nostr introduces another very important difference: THERE ARE NO ADS. Well, to be precise, the only “ads” you’ll see are the ones posted by the people you follow. But most Nostr clients allow you to filter your feed to see only content from the people you follow, which eliminates any kind of ads or algorithmic suggestions.

The beautiful part is that looking beyond the people you follow is OPTIONAL. You can always expand your circle by one degree and see the friends your friends follow, or expand further so random people from anywhere in the world appear in your feed, while always having the ability to widen or narrow your “web of trust.”

The idea is that Nostr is a place where each npub represents a person (or a bot, those exist too), and when we come to see what our friends have posted, we don’t have to swallow one “suggested” post after another or endless ads.

We’ve all heard that if you’re not paying for the product, you are the product. And until now, that meant feeling obliged to accept that, since ads paid the platforms, we had to give them our attention. And little by little, social networks have become less and less “social” and more like addictive billboards of ads and suggestions, where the algorithm feeds us whatever it wants.

But the decentralized social media movement, like Nostr, believes we deserve something better. We deserve a better Internet, not the one that has gradually taken advantage of our “user-generated content” to enrich ten people with the work of all of us. If they can’t monetize our attention, they have nothing.

But why should they monetize it instead of us?

And why can’t we choose to simply see the people we actually want to see?

TAKE THE FIRST STEP

I’m not going to lie — taking the first step is hard, especially because, as I said before, the “bridges” that would make it easy for people who are used to the comfort provided by multi-billion-dollar platforms don’t really exist yet. But that doesn’t mean taking the step isn’t beneficial for everyone.

As of today, the Nostr “app” that makes it easiest to create an account, receive tips, and access all kinds of content is primal.net . It’s just one of many options you can use to begin your journey toward digital sovereignty. And in fact, one of the most beautiful things about Nostr is that even if you create your account in one “app,” you can later use that same identity across many other applications that are more focused by type of content (some geared toward short notes like Twitter, others toward videos like YouTube, or images in an Instagram style).

You can also create a Nostr account and find many educational resources about the protocol at https://nostr.com/ ****.

THE REALITY PEOPLE ENCOUNTER WHEN THEY TRY NOSTR

I know several people who created a Nostr account, tried it for a few days, and then disappeared. Why does that happen? It’s a combination of factors, but I’d attribute it mainly to the following:

• When someone creates an account, they usually have two options: select their interests so an algorithm can suggest people to follow, or choose not to follow anyone and start with a “blank slate.” And when I say “blank,” I mean it LITERALLY. If you don’t follow anyone and don’t know anyone, your feed will be empty. In fact, if you decide to be meticulous about choosing what you want in your feed, something will happen that you’ve NEVER experienced on traditional platforms: you’ll reach the end of your feed. You won’t experience that endless scroll we’ve been conditioned to expect. You’ll simply see what the people you chose have posted AND THAT’S IT. Nothing else will bombard your attention (and we’re not used to that. Truly, it feels very strange).

  I’ve been a Nostr user for more than two years, and it still feels odd when I reach “the end of my feed” — when I get back to the point where I left off. It’s a strange experience that we’re not accustomed to. In fact, it can make us uncomfortable, because it makes us aware that we came to social media to escape and to have our brains “filled” with things.

• Another reality new #nostr users encounter is that people on this protocol talk a lot about #bitcoin. Of course, there are ways to avoid seeing it (if it’s something that bothers you), but since it’s an ecosystem created by bitcoiners — and given that the principles of decentralization and sovereignty are shared by both Bitcoin and Nostr — there’s a huge amount of conversation around it. That, along with all the political discussions that stem from it, makes it almost inevitable that if you choose to follow people recommended by algorithms, you’ll run into topics like: the monetary system, inflation, economic sovereignty, freedom of expression, Big Tech’s manipulation of media...

  I repeat, you can always choose to activate a filter that “mutes” the keywords you want to keep out of your feed — but that requires active effort on the user’s part.

(Also worth remembering: people talk about bitcoin, but they also send you micro-tips in bitcoin — #zaps — for content they find valuable 🙂)

• You’ll hear people on Nostr say that “we are the algorithm.”

  There’s something very powerful in that phrase: it makes us the owners of what passes before our eyes, but it also turns us into the curatorial filter for the people who follow us. On Nostr, there are many algorithmic views you can choose to browse and explore, but the most powerful filter is simply seeing what the people you follow choose to share. (Remember that time when on Facebook or Instagram you only saw your own stuff?)

WHAT DO I WANT MY SOCIAL NETWORK FOR?

So my question to you is: what do you really want from your social networks?

Nostr has no incentive to keep you inside the protocol for as long as possible, endlessly scrolling, just to sell your eyeballs to advertisers. If there’s nothing else to see, it doesn’t try to force you to see more.

(Although if that’s what you want, you can always venture out and explore through #hashtags, topics, or by browsing the people your people follow.)

Many people around me admit that they actually go to social media to switch off their minds, get their dopamine hits, and fill the space of their thoughts. But I believe that only leads us toward a future of mental saturation, where “social networks” isolate us more and more, and fill our minds with an ever-growing stream of infinite content created by AI and optimized to hook us and make us watch more ads.

IT’S TIME TO RECLAIM OUR ATTENTION

They’ve gotten us so used to the comfort of not having to think that the idea of moving to Nostr with me might feel exhausting. Reclaiming our agency and our attention was always going to require effort.

For years we’ve been hearing how harmful social media has become for our attention spans, how algorithms have made it more and more addictive through dopamine hits, one swipe after another. And how the most incendiary content is the kind that ends up getting the most visibility.

The question is: what are we going to do about it?

Are we willing to face the discomfort that comes with leaving their gilded cages?

I believe we are. I believe people are increasingly fed up. And that we’re capable of demanding a better Internet. That we’re capable of valuing what open ecosystems offer; ones that don’t seek to monetize us or fuel our addiction. I believe we want the power to decide what appears in our feed.

And I believe that little by little, if we manage to bring our friends and loved ones to #nostr, the frictions disappear and we end up owning our digital identities and our online relationships.

COME TO NOSTR! Even if at first it’s hard to bring everyone along, IT’S WORTH IT.

That’s why to all the people I love, I say: “Move to #nostr with me 💜.”

Thank you for your valuable attention.

*Article written 100% by a human in spanish, translated with the help of #AI. Images generated with #AI for illustration.