early social media wasn't about being an influencer
I am old enough to remember early social media and how it was largely just posting albums of terribly lit pictures from you crappy digital camera with status updates like "I'm feeling hungry right now! Thinking about ordering a pizza!"
Of course there was an incentive to make yourself look as good or cool as possible, but it was not about creating a "commercial for your life" as this substack author writes.
Pretty depressing what it has become.