I spent years playing the algorithm game on social media. I'd post something I was genuinely excited about, refresh constantly to watch the engagement numbers, and feel this creeping dread when the reach tanked despite my effort. A few hours would pass, and the post would disappear into the void—not because nobody would have liked it, but because the algorithm decided it wasn't "engaging enough" in that crucial first hour.

Sound familiar?

The frustration got worse every year. I'd see creators talking about "beating the algorithm," "timing posts for maximum reach," and "using the right hashtags." The conversation shifted from "did I create something good?" to "will the algorithm show it to anyone?" That's when I realized something was broken—not in me, but in the system itself.

The Algorithm Fatigue Is Real

Let's be honest: algorithmic feeds have created a weird psychological dependency. We've all experienced it. You post something, and suddenly you're anxious. Will it perform? Will people see it? The algorithm becomes this invisible judge, determining your content's worth based on metrics that are intentionally opaque.

Here's what really bothers me about it: the algorithm doesn't care about quality. It cares about engagement. These are not the same thing. A thoughtful, nuanced perspective might take 30 seconds to read. A rage-bait post takes three seconds and generates ten times the engagement. So what does the algorithm push? You already know.

The algorithm is also extractive. It extracts your attention, your creativity, your time spent worrying about performance. For what? So you can see ads? So platforms can sell your attention to advertisers? Meanwhile, your actual audience—the people who genuinely care about what you write—might miss your post entirely because the algorithm decided it wasn't a priority.

Why Your Content Goes Unseen

There's a cruel irony in algorithmic feeds: you have less control over reaching your own audience than you think. Your followers—the people who explicitly said they want to see your content—might never see it. The algorithm decides who sees what based on engagement patterns, time spent, and a million other factors it never discloses.

I watched this happen to my own posts. I'd write something I was proud of, something I genuinely believed in, and it would reach maybe 2% of my followers. Not because they weren't interested—I had no way of knowing—but because the algorithm determined they shouldn't see it.

This creates a perverse incentive loop. Creators optimize for what the algorithm rewards instead of what they actually want to create. Posts become shorter, more sensational, more designed to trigger reactions rather than thought. The conversations become shallower. The signal-to-noise ratio gets worse every year.

The Psychological Cost

What surprises people when I talk about this is the mental toll. Constant algorithm checking—refreshing your notifications, checking reach stats, analyzing which posts performed and which didn't—it's exhausting. It's not satisfying. It's not even really creative work anymore. It's optimization and anxiety wrapped together.

And for what? You're building an audience on someone else's platform, under someone else's rules, where the goalposts keep moving. One year, consistency matters most. The next year, the algorithm prioritizes "novel" content. Then it shifts again. You can spend months perfecting your strategy only to have the platform change the rules overnight.

What a Chronological Feed Actually Feels Like

About three years ago, I started thinking: what if we just… didn't do that? What if there was a space where you posted something and everyone who follows you sees it? Not because of an algorithm, but because that's literally what "follow" means.

It sounds almost nostalgic—like the internet of the early 2000s. And maybe it is. But there's something profoundly different about a chronological feed. There's honesty to it. There's no "why did my post flop?" anxiety. There's no second-guessing your content. You post it, your audience sees it, and the conversation happens in real time.

The conversation also stays richer. Without the algorithm pushing outrage and engagement-bait, people naturally gravitate toward content that's genuine and interesting to them. You're not competing with bait. You're just creating.

The Jottings Philosophy

This is why I built Jottings—not as a replacement for social media, but as an escape hatch from it. It's a place for your microblog. A chronological feed. No algorithm. No engagement metrics (unless you want them). No platform incentivizing you to be sensational. Just you and your audience.

With Jottings, when someone subscribes to your feed, they see your posts. All of them. In order. No hidden posts, no algorithmic suppression, no mystery about reach. You post something at 2 AM on a Tuesday and your subscribers see it if they check their feeds. You post something during peak hours, and it's there too. There's equality in visibility.

You also own your work. Your microblog is your own corner of the internet. No VC-backed platform will pivot its algorithm and tank your reach. No corporate restructuring will delete your content. You're in control.

Building an Audience the Honest Way

Here's the thing nobody tells you about algorithms: they're not required for a meaningful audience. Some of the most interesting creators I know have audiences in the hundreds, not millions. But those hundreds are real. Those people actually care about what they're creating. The engagement is genuine because the relationship is based on real interest, not algorithmic nudging.

When you move away from algorithms, something shifts. You stop asking "will this perform?" and start asking "is this something worth saying?" Those are very different questions. And the second one leads to better work.

Build an audience that follows you on your own site. Share updates on newsletters. Use your microblog to own the distribution. Yes, it's slower. No, it won't get you a viral moment. But it will get you a real audience—the kind that sticks around, that engages meaningfully, that actually reads what you write instead of just double-tapping a headline.

The Alternative Exists

I'm not saying social media is evil or that you should quit it entirely. I'm saying there's a cost to algorithmic feeds that most of us aren't fully acknowledging. Algorithm fatigue is real. The psychological strain of constant optimization is real. The experience of creating for a system rather than for people is real.

And there's an alternative. It's not mainstream. It's not what everyone's using. But it exists, and it works differently.

If you're tired of wondering why your content isn't being seen, tired of chasing algorithmic favor, tired of the anxiety that comes with posting something and watching it disappear—maybe it's time to try something else. Build your corner of the internet where you're in control. Post on your own terms. Own the relationship with your audience.

That's what Jottings is here for. Your chronological microblog. Your rules. No algorithm.

Try Jottings free and see what it feels like to post without the algorithm watching.