In this conversation, Dalton and Michael unpack the concept of "living in the social media Matrix," comparing modern social platforms to the sci-fi film where humans unknowingly power machines. They explore how social media companies harvest our engagement for profit, and what that means for our online presence.

"This is the challenge right? We're all living in this society where these very large and powerful businesses need us all to post a lot, and we have to ask ourselves the question: what is the value exchange and how maybe are we... how do we be careful we're not doing secret harms to ourselves?" - Dalton"

Michael and Dalton begin by establishing the Matrix reference for viewers who might not be familiar with the 1999 film.

"The Matrix is a thing that is computers for some reason people power it... and they don't really, there's a lot of details left out on how this came to be, but the idea is it is this big Overlord thing and all these people are trapped in it and it's feeding off their energy." - Michael"

In this analogy, social media companies are like the robots harvesting human energy through our posts, engagement, and attention.

The speakers break down the fundamental business model behind social media platforms - one they're personally familiar with from their own entrepreneurial experiences.

At a social media company, users create the content that generates page views and ad revenue. The companies don't pay for content creation but profit from every view and interaction. It's remarkably simple and incredibly profitable at scale.

"Every time someone posts content it creates page views or whatever... and you can put ads on those things and it costs you nothing. You don't pay anyone to create those page views and you make slivers of a penny on every ad that's displayed. That's it, that's the business." - Michael"

Dalton and Michael discuss the "negative externalities" - the harmful side effects that come with participating in social media platforms.

While many young people are already aware of basic privacy concerns like being careful with personal photos, there are more nuanced issues to consider. The speakers offer a more sophisticated perspective on managing your online presence.

"First like hey, that's the truth, we're not kidding, this is actually how this works. And they're not selling your data, right? That's not the business model. It's more of just page views driven. They're selling everyone's eyes looking at your posts." - Dalton"

The conversation emphasizes that everything posted online becomes part of your permanent digital record, even if you believe you've deleted it.

In the age of AI training data, bots and scrapers are constantly archiving content across the internet. Deletion doesn't mean disappearance - it often continues to exist in databases, archives, and AI training sets.

"One: everything you post to the internet is forever, and even if you think it is deleted, there's a bunch of bots and scrapers that cash it forever. This is becoming more of a problem." - Michael"

The speakers highlight how advanced tools are making true anonymity increasingly difficult to maintain.

"Two: the tools are getting better and better and better at sort of de-anonymizing people. If you post a lot, even if you think you're anonymous, they can look at language patterns, they can look at time of day, there's all these different ways." - Michael"

They make a somewhat controversial point about being careful not just with photos but also with publicly stated thoughts, as these can increasingly be tied back to individuals through pattern recognition.

"Let me say something controversial right... we're living in a world where you probably need to be careful about your thoughts, at least your publicly stated thoughts." - Michael"

Despite the cautionary tone, the speakers emphasize how strategic use of social media can be tremendously beneficial.

If you're thoughtful about what you post, your digital footprint can showcase your talents, skills, thoughts, and writing in ways that advance your career and connections. They cite Paul Graham's essays as an example of how thoughtful online content can continue to positively impact people over time.

"If you use this strategically it can help you. If you're aware of this phenomenon and you are comfortable posting things that you do think are defensible or things that showcase your talents or skills or your thoughts or your writing, you can be noticed." - Dalton"

The discussion shifts to the nature of social media platforms, which are designed to be indifferent to how users interact with them.

"What's tricky is that the the platform, charitably, the platform is indifferent. Charitably, as long as you're generating ad views, the platform doesn't really care whether you are harming yourself." - Michael"

Since the platforms themselves won't look out for your best interests, you must be proactive in managing your online presence.

The speakers reflect on how people sometimes maintain a false separation between their "internet persona" and "real life persona."

"I think some folks have never experienced that and so you almost have this like split brain thing. 'Oh this is my internet life and I do all these things on the internet, and this is my real life' and these are unrelated identities that I have and that's going away." - Michael"

They stress that this separation is increasingly illusory - your online actions have real consequences in your offline life.

"Things I say on the internet have a very real impact on my day of walking around on the streets." - Michael"

The conversation concludes with a balanced view of social media participation as a "double-sided coin."

"It's a double-sided coin. Literally there's a lot more risk posting on social media now, but you can extract literally ton of benefit, like way more benefit than maybe people would imagine." - Dalton"

The speakers emphasize the potential upside of maintaining a thoughtful online presence, including career advancement. They mention how their own public content (like the video they're making) is part of their intentional strategy to build a digital legacy they're proud of.

• Everything posted online becomes part of a permanent record that's increasingly difficult to erase
• Social media platforms are designed to maximize engagement, not user wellbeing
• De-anonymization tools are making it easier to connect online activity to real identities
• The separation between online and offline personas is an illusion
• Strategic posting can provide substantial career and networking benefits
• Platforms like GitHub can showcase skills that attract professional opportunities
• Being intentional about your digital footprint can prevent future problems
• Public vs. private thoughts require different approaches in the digital age