By Mara Ellison · 2026-06-01 · 6 min read
Against the Feed
The feed was meant to show us the world. Mostly it shows us the version of ourselves most likely to keep scrolling.
The feed was supposed to show us the world. Mostly it shows us the version of ourselves most likely to keep scrolling — a portrait drawn entirely from our worst ten seconds of judgement.
None of this is a moral failing on your part. It is a system working exactly as designed, and the design is very good.
The slow web still exists; it just doesn't advertise.
Reading on purpose feels almost quaint now — deciding on a thing, opening it, finishing it. But that small sequence is the difference between being a reader and being an audience.
Reading on purpose
An audience is shown what performs. A reader goes looking. The web still rewards the second behaviour; it just no longer defaults to it.
The feed has an opinion about who you should become.
The city at night — best read slowly.
So I keep a short list of writers and a long list of nobody, and I visit the short list on purpose. It is slower. It is also the only reading that has ever changed my mind.