Matthew Phillips:

Furthermore, the nature of engagement itself has been subtly reshaped. Algorithms often favor content that elicits strong, quick reactions – the kind that can be easily signaled with an emoji or a “reaction thumbnail.” Nuanced discussion and thoughtful communication, the traditional hallmarks of blog comment sections and the communities around them, take a backseat to attention-grabbing, often polarizing, content. The algorithm, in its quest for maximum engagement, can inadvertently filter out the very depth and thoughtfulness that blogs once championed.

Look around at the average blog and you’re about to notice the dearth of comments. It wasn’t long ago that the number of comments on a post was a solid indicator that it struck a chord. As someone who runs a long-running blog, I’ve seen this happen in seemingly real time, and all you have to do is compare an article from 2015 like this to a similarly provocative article from 2025 like this. Reactions are the new currency and they’re happening on some other platform.

I‘ve toe-dipped into the IndieWeb over on my personal blog because it helps mitigate some of the silence by porting social media interactions into the site so they can be rendered in both places. It’s sorta like a modern-day version of Pingbacks. But it also feels like a FOMO-driven response because the interactions are happening elsewhere and all I’m doing is collecting artifacts. I’m still required to engage outside of my web home and feed the algorithm.