Category: SocialMedia

fully done with social media

whbeebe1 Comment

It would appear that after experiencing Bluesky and Mastodon for nearly a year that I’m ready to turn off both of the “new” social media fora and just live within my little blog. Total social media burnout for me is now complete.

I came to realize that the behaviors that drove me away from the classic social media sites were echoing on Bluesky and Mastodon, especially Bluesky. Neither Bluesky nor Mastodon is algorithmically driven to push controversial content into my face, all in the name of “engagement.” I chose to follow certain people because I knew of them back on what was once called Twitter and Facebook. It was reading what they posted and the replies that came back that made me realize an important truth: controversial conversations were invented by the people on those sites, feeding the algorithms on classic social media that amplified them and scooped up similar conversations and put them all in my timeline without my consent.

I tried to dial it back on Bluesky and Mastodon by unfollowing the “controversial” sources, but all that were left were accounts repeating announcements that I could have easily read on their associated websites. My choices had reduced Bluesky and Mastodon to long scrolling advertising feeds. Since I’m not interested in trying to find new accounts to follow, I’d decided to quietly move along.

I won’t delete my accounts, at least not yet. I can’t imagine going back in, but as they say, never say never. But if by some chance you find my accounts on either Bluesky or Mastodon, don’t follow and especially don’t post anything aimed at me, because if you wait for a response, you’re going to be waiting a very long, long time.

alternative social media, a six month report

whbeebe

Last July I wrote about moving away from the Big Three social media platforms, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Yes, yes, there are others out there, but from my perspective that’s what I was on and those mattered to me. Since then I’ve deleted my Twitter account and put both my Facebook and Instagram accounts in private mode and have dropped down to checking on each no more than once/month, if that often.

The two new accounts, one on Bluesky and the other on Mastodon, have proven to be every bit as good as advertised. I really like the web interfaces on both.

Bluesky Web page — @whb.bsky.social

The Bluesky web interface is just fine, I just find it odd that it looks for the most part like the mobile interface, with the left and right side panels hidden but available as a single click on the app. The dog’s name, by the way, is Charlie and she’s a she.

Mastodon Web page — @wbeebe@mastodon.cloud

The Mastodon web page is a lot more complicated with four vertical columns. Again, you can see the same thing on the mobile app with simple touches on the main view, which on the web page is the second column from the left. It’s not a problem for me at all. What’s interesting with Mastodon is that you can have validated web locations, which in my case is this website and my GitHub location.

One key feature of both social platforms is the lack of an “engagement algorithm.” I don’t get anything I haven’t signed up for, and if I don’t like some replies to the accounts I do follow, it’s simple to just mute those replies (and the repliers) and not be bothered from there on out.

I’m planning to keep these accounts indefinitely. I can’t remember the last time before I joined Bluesky and Mastodon where I enjoyed being on social media as much as I enjoy being on these two platforms.

Links

it’s time for me to move away from social media