Finn argues that the garden should be your own corner of the web, one that you fully control. Not hosted on a ‘walled’ platform or the cloud. Unlike the stream where everything is decided for us, the garden is a space you entirely architect yourself.[1][2][3]
Beyond being seen as a form of resistance, it also serves as a “personal playground”. As Finn states in his keynote[2], its:
“a place to experiment, fail and learn.”
By moving away from platforms that degrade our own ability to explore for ourselves, we return to a more meaningful form of consumption, where we own the entire system it lives within. Reclaiming this ownership is one of the only ways I can think of to avoid the web’s homogenisation of culture and sameness[6]. The garden is a tool you can think with, while platforms operate more as a tool of self-expression[3].
Gardens don’t solve the inherent issues with algorithmic feeds, but they do offer a meaningful alternative; a space where you can distinctly be yourself, with the added benefit of being in full control of the environment. You connect ideas on your own, not the algorithm, which allows you to preserve the way you naturally think in this world where we as users have been turned passive, our lives dictated by systems.
End.
references & appendix; start your own garden! The reflection is available here aswell: reflection