In January of 2025, the good folks at Defector.com published a list of 35 topics that have been discussed to within an inch of their life here on the internet.  Lucky for me, I haven’t publicly commented on most, if not all, of these topics, so I figured why not dip my toes into the fray on occasion.  We will continue today with the next question on their list:

Followback Culture

First, let’s define what this is.  Google’s AI bullshit says “Follow back culture is the social media practice of returning a follow when someone follows your account, often driven by community expectations, reciprocal growth, and perceived politeness.”  At one point in time, I think this was an appropriate expectation, back when social media was populated by actual people.  If somebody gave you a follow and there was no overt reason not to follow back, it was certainly the polite thing to do.  That said, in today’s world, where 99 out of every 100 posts you see is coming from a Russian bot designed to destabilize the foundations of America’s democracy or trying to push their AI-generated OnlyFans page, that expectation is out the window.  Follow me if you like, but I’m not following you back.