People asking me where to go from Twitter generally get the same answer: “Outside.” Go outside, encounter people organically. You’ll soon realize that Twitter is the crazy guy on the street corner with the bullhorn.
That said, Substack, for now, is an option. I’ve had terrific conversations, met interesting people and read interesting things on Notes. You can enjoy a more substantive dive by reading the person’s stack.
The other day I read an interesting note by an author, interacted with the author in the comments, and then read several of his Substack columns. A day later, I ordered two of his books.
For all it's problems, I was sticking around with Facebook out of sheer habit, until a few weeks back I was mindlessly scrolling and realized something:
A website to connect friends, families, and colleagues? Completely gone.
I went ahead and counted. I received about one actual post from anyone I know for every twelve sponsored post, ad, group, attempt to pivot me to Stories, and attempt to get me to friend people I don't know. The Stories in the feed are really ads for media: segments of Family Guy, The Office, or similar popular television shows with the statements like "the writers should get paid extra for this scene 🤣🤣😭😭🤣🤣" Very little of this sponsored, ad, video stuff is connected to any interest I ever stated on FB ever. For instance, I don't really watch Family Guy and I saw The Office once but don't, like, reference or tag it or share Office memes or anything.
The posts from people I know are the hard core users and it's usually when they share something from their own meme page follows. It's rarely the personal stuff they post. I went ahead and checked: people are still posting their thoughts, feelings, life updates, etc, but literally none of it is reaching me.
Which raises the question of what Facebook is for. Again, the premise is, "all your community is here." But they aren't.
In it's current algorithmic decay, Facebook is literally just taking your thoughts and feelings and using it as metadata to feed you nothing but ads and marketing. Not metaphorically or "in order to monetize engagement" or whatever, but that's the only thing it does.
If Facebook was offered in it's current form, would anyone have ever joined? "This is a new website where you post thoughts and feelings and reaction to news in order to get an endless feed of ads for cellphone games and boots." Fundamentally it doesn't make sense to participate, those ads are everywhere else too.
Other people bailed on Facebook a lot sooner than I did, with the same complaints I have now, but it really is to the point where there's actually no content there. I'm out.
I hugely miss Twitter. I loved knowing what was happening a few days before it hit the Times or the Post. I loved being able to go on geeky deep dives with scientists. I loved being educated by Black Twitter & BIPOC Twitter. I loved connecting with other people who found pleasure in poetic experiments, creative bots, and Twitter art forms. And I had friends of a kind, and connections and communities. I loved the huge unassimilable fire-hose of it all.
I’m happy to be in the physical world, happy to be here on Substack, am exploring Threads, Blue Sky & Mastodon, but i still feel as I’ve lost a limb. Most days I hardly notice except for a ghost pain, but days like these I really can’t take in how much we lost.
I'm kind of okay with social media imploding on itself. I hope it all falls apart and acts as an "I told you so" for the wealthy asshats who run those platforms. None of it is working for the greater good anymore, just for the almighty dollar.
People asking me where to go from Twitter generally get the same answer: “Outside.” Go outside, encounter people organically. You’ll soon realize that Twitter is the crazy guy on the street corner with the bullhorn.
That said, Substack, for now, is an option. I’ve had terrific conversations, met interesting people and read interesting things on Notes. You can enjoy a more substantive dive by reading the person’s stack.
The other day I read an interesting note by an author, interacted with the author in the comments, and then read several of his Substack columns. A day later, I ordered two of his books.
I never joined Twitter.
For all it's problems, I was sticking around with Facebook out of sheer habit, until a few weeks back I was mindlessly scrolling and realized something:
A website to connect friends, families, and colleagues? Completely gone.
I went ahead and counted. I received about one actual post from anyone I know for every twelve sponsored post, ad, group, attempt to pivot me to Stories, and attempt to get me to friend people I don't know. The Stories in the feed are really ads for media: segments of Family Guy, The Office, or similar popular television shows with the statements like "the writers should get paid extra for this scene 🤣🤣😭😭🤣🤣" Very little of this sponsored, ad, video stuff is connected to any interest I ever stated on FB ever. For instance, I don't really watch Family Guy and I saw The Office once but don't, like, reference or tag it or share Office memes or anything.
The posts from people I know are the hard core users and it's usually when they share something from their own meme page follows. It's rarely the personal stuff they post. I went ahead and checked: people are still posting their thoughts, feelings, life updates, etc, but literally none of it is reaching me.
Which raises the question of what Facebook is for. Again, the premise is, "all your community is here." But they aren't.
In it's current algorithmic decay, Facebook is literally just taking your thoughts and feelings and using it as metadata to feed you nothing but ads and marketing. Not metaphorically or "in order to monetize engagement" or whatever, but that's the only thing it does.
If Facebook was offered in it's current form, would anyone have ever joined? "This is a new website where you post thoughts and feelings and reaction to news in order to get an endless feed of ads for cellphone games and boots." Fundamentally it doesn't make sense to participate, those ads are everywhere else too.
Other people bailed on Facebook a lot sooner than I did, with the same complaints I have now, but it really is to the point where there's actually no content there. I'm out.
Once in a while I log back into Twitter and feel the same malaise, it was really quite fun (while also being terrible obv)
I hugely miss Twitter. I loved knowing what was happening a few days before it hit the Times or the Post. I loved being able to go on geeky deep dives with scientists. I loved being educated by Black Twitter & BIPOC Twitter. I loved connecting with other people who found pleasure in poetic experiments, creative bots, and Twitter art forms. And I had friends of a kind, and connections and communities. I loved the huge unassimilable fire-hose of it all.
I’m happy to be in the physical world, happy to be here on Substack, am exploring Threads, Blue Sky & Mastodon, but i still feel as I’ve lost a limb. Most days I hardly notice except for a ghost pain, but days like these I really can’t take in how much we lost.
Happy to meet you here, though.
I'm kind of okay with social media imploding on itself. I hope it all falls apart and acts as an "I told you so" for the wealthy asshats who run those platforms. None of it is working for the greater good anymore, just for the almighty dollar.