If you are coming over to this blog because you saw one of my posts over on Instagram, Threads, or Facebook, welcome. I mentioned on those other platforms that I wasn’t going to get into a soapbox about why I was leaving META platforms, but I figured I would do a brief explanation here. To be honest, it wont be a surprise but the main reason is that I do not agree with the general position Mark Zuckerberg and his ideology these days. His recent changes to moderation on the META platforms don’t give me confidence that we wont see an influx of hate speech and other negative commentary, and unfortunately I have too many people on my social and family circles that I have seen over the past eight years get hooked in by some extreme ideology. With the upcoming Trump presidential term, I fear that it will again only get worse and I am sick of seeing it and dealing with it. I’m exhausted and I don’t want to have to self moderate a constant stream of content that I don’t want to engage with.
When I first signed up for Facebook back in the early 2000’s I was approaching it for the original intended use of connecting with friends and family. Social media has changed over the past twenty years and these days (like most I think), I am not using social media for connect with friends and family. I’m connecting with my friends and family through basic messaging apps and I am finding that more and more of my photo sharing and life updates are occurring through small, closed door discussion rooms. My social media these days is focused around finding communities and discussions around my hobbies. I am really finding interest in, following topics and not following people.
I am going to miss Threads if I am being honest. For what it's worth, the algorithm over there did find me great conversations to follow and engage with. I am going to be investing most of my time though into the Fediverse, namely Mastadon and Pixelfed. Bluesky seems alright, but I dont really want to rebuild a social graph around another single company. While the environment over there is positive right now, that could change in a heartbeat with a new CEO or management.
If you would like to come and join me or follow me on some of those other platforms, I would love to engage with you in those conversations. I’ll have my links shared over on the sidebar of this blog.