[ben_w]

> Is this really different than old media

Yes. People never handled daily small talk with their friends and family via the Letters page of e.g. The Times, so it was never antisocial to change newspaper, to boycott a newspaper entirely, or to go without any daily paper at all.

[simonh]

There are plenty of direct messaging apps and services people can use to continue to do so such as iMessage, WhatsApp, SMS, email and many more.

The issue is publishing services with discoverability where anyone can see or subscribe to your feed, those are more like a letters page and service providers have a clear interest in what they are publishing for you.