I've had a love/hate relationship with social networks. I ditched my Facebook account years ago. But I kept my Instagram account. Twitter is a chore to constantly block accounts, but it has dog pictures. Haven't jumped on the TikTok bandwagon (much to the disappointment of my niece). My Tumblr account never really did anything. Not only because I didn't post a lot (sound familiar?), but also because I never really looked for other accounts to follow. I never connected with it. This Wordpress account is always my "next thing that I want to work on" but we see the results of that. Two posts in how many years? (Three now!)

So what am I actually looking to accomplish with social networking? Mainly humor, dog pictures, and important news. Important being a subjective word of course. Twitter has been the closest to that if you follow the right accounts and are quick with the damn block button. But recent events (ok, event) has really made me question if I want to support that thing. The ads are getting ridiculous, and the cesspool that exists now seems like it wants to become even more cesspool-y. I understand freedom of speech and all that. But ALL social networks start out as "we're not moderating anything" and they always change (usually too slowly) as people get doxxed, are threatened with bodily harm or death, advance propaganda targeting select groups and inciting violence, etc. Yes, people have the right to speak their minds. But corporations are under no obligation to act as a microphone, and probably don't want to be listed as source for coordinating such violence and intolerance. The First Amendment only applies to governmental entities. (Something that people seem to forget, including the people in the government...)

So where do we go from here now that Twitter is in the process of being put under the thumb of an oligarch? Another rich white guy thinking he knows better than all who came before. Other options exist, but they don't have the reach that Twitter has. Blogs in general are long form (as you can tell from this rambling) and not really made for exchange of ideas, conversations, or the like. There are "micro blogs" but same issue with exchange of ideas (and audience). Instagram still exists, but it's not quite the same thing. (It's for dog pictures...) Facebook the service is dead to me. Tumblr, well, I still don't get it. There are alternative twitter-like spaces (Mastodon being one I saw mentioned a bit today on Twitter), but it doesn't have anywhere close to the reach that Twitter does. (Plus, the whole separate communities thing is kind of confusing, even if the intent is to make sure no one entity controls it.)

So, I'm probably going to be spending less time on twitter until it sorts itself out (if it ever does). I'll get my dog pictures from Instagram. I'll try and rekindle my use of RSS feeds for news and interesting blogs (carefully selecting what feeds I choose). And I may even post more on this site. (I could say "or Tumblr" but that's not really going to happen.) So, it's been an interesting few days in the world of online community.

(Maybe we'll bring back usenet...)