Reader, do you also feel that social media — whether it is LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter — is hard to follow? I used to feel that. As I increased my engagement with social media. It is so difficult to keep up with a few of the gems that I like to read once in a while.

For example, I like to read Jason Fried’s articles. I had read his books and watched his speeches, so naturally, I wanted to keep a tab on his articles.

But the moment I started following him on LinkedIn, he was lost in the ocean of other few hundred voices. No matter what social media companies claim to be, their platforms are not designed to encourage reading at one’s own pace. The platforms thrive on ‘reactions’. If your article doesn’t receive X amount of engagement within Y minutes of publication, it is not good enough for their platform and is down-graded.

In fact, different platforms have different content half-life, i.e. the amount of time it takes for a post to receive half of its total engagement. Look at the statistics below. Is it any wonder that your Instagram post or LinkedIn post is as good as useless after 20-24 hours? The platforms are designed to thrive on the reactions of people. And people react to newness, freshness, not stale things. At least, that’s the logic.

A blog hosted on a website has a half-life of 2 years, while Snapchat has the least half-life

All my reading sources are in a single window

Distraction-free reading with tagging, highlighting, and sharing options

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