I have been online long enough to remember when social media still felt social.
Before feeds decided what we should see, people found one another through websites, forums, chat rooms and blogs. You followed someone because you had chosen to bookmark them. You left a comment because you had actually read what they wrote. Links moved readers from one small corner of the internet to another.
When AnakBrunei began, the internet felt less like a shopping mall and more like a collection of open houses. Some were beautifully kept. Some were chaotic. A few contained opinions that should probably have remained inside the owner’s head. But each had a recognisable person behind the door.
When everyone became a publisher
Social media removed the technical barriers. Suddenly you did not need a website or any knowledge of HTML to publish photographs, thoughts and news. That was liberating.
It gave ordinary people a voice. It allowed small businesses to reach customers. It helped families stay connected and communities organise themselves quickly. In Brunei, where everyone is separated by perhaps two introductions, social media made an already small country feel even smaller.
It also changed what publishing meant. Speed became more valuable than reflection. The post that provoked the quickest reaction travelled furthest. Context became a luxury, and outrage discovered that it had an excellent distribution network.
The feed took over
The biggest change was not that people stopped creating. It was that platforms stopped behaving like neutral containers.
We once decided which sites to visit. Now a feed makes much of that decision for us. It learns what holds our attention and supplies more of it. Not necessarily what informs us, challenges us or makes us happier. What keeps the thumb moving.
This changed creators too. We began adjusting ourselves to please the machinery. Photographs became vertical. Thoughts became shorter. Titles became louder. Everyone learned to perform urgency.
I am not pretending the old internet was a golden age. It was slower, harder to use and filled with its own nonsense. But it left more room for eccentricity. People built things because they wanted them to exist, not because a dashboard predicted engagement.
We gained reach and lost ownership
A social-media following can feel like an audience you own. You do not.
The platform controls who sees your work. It can change the rules, reduce your reach or disappear entirely. Years of photographs, writing and conversation sit inside somebody else’s business model.
That is one reason I still value this blog. AnakBrunei is not immune to technology changing around it, but it remains a home rather than a rented booth. The archive is mine to preserve. The old posts may embarrass me occasionally, but at least they embarrass me on my own property.
What social media changed in us
The more uncomfortable question is not what happened to the platforms. It is what happened to us.
We became accustomed to measuring attention. Likes placed a number beside approval. Shares placed a number beside relevance. Silence began to feel like failure.
We also became less comfortable with unfinished thoughts. Social media rewards certainty, especially angry certainty. Nuance rarely goes viral because “it depends” is a terrible slogan.
After more than two decades online, I still believe the internet can connect people and preserve stories in ways no earlier medium could. I have seen it happen. This site exists because of that possibility.
But I no longer confuse connection with closeness, reach with influence or attention with meaning.
Social media grew up. So did I. I am not sure either of us became exactly what we imagined.