For me, Facebook is for friends – the flesh-and-blood people I’ve met in real life. I’ve developed my own tricks for dealing with the site’s changes, which in my case haven’t been as toxic as what’s happening in the rest of the online media world.

Sure I’ve used the other sites, but more for the business of selling books. In Twitter’s olden days, I occasionally found myself in brief conversations with people I’d never met and probably wouldn’t ever meet in real life.

Those days are gone.

Gone. Along with people who valued conversation and people whose comments showed that they’d actually read complete posts. If they’ve moved to other sites, I have yet to find them. I suspect that they’ve found better things to do with their days than to fill them with algorithm-curated doomscrolling.

The exodus from Twitter/X to other sites has turned even the best of the websites I used into political echo chambers. People comment on news they’ve just seen, which may or may not have been accurately reported. News that I saw more than a week earlier. Even when I agree with the poster’s facts and sentiments, I’m constantly amazed at the number of people posting links to articles which they’ve obviously never read.

I occasionally post an old blog from this site when it’s appropriate to whatever’s happening in today’s world. While I appreciate the likes and shares, I’ll admit to being somewhat appalled by the fact that – when I check the site clicks and read-thru numbers – none of these people have clicked on the piece, much less read it, before sharing it with others. Note that I can’t see who’s clicking and reading, only total numbers, so if you’re one of these people, I don’t know who you are. What it tells me is that the people who agree with my politics and opinions share a lot of the same traits as those “on the other side”. Even if they have the ability to read and reason, they don’t do it when they’re online. Is this behaviour a contagion that can spread to other parts of their lives? What scares me is that we already know that the traffic-building focus on acrimony reflects and encourages acrimony in real life.

So what is to be done?

I believe in beauty.

Instagram has wonderful images created by talented people. But, for whatever reason, it never felt right for me. Later on, reviewing its user demographics, I found that it wouldn’t be particularly good for selling books, either. I have better uses for my time.

BlueSky’s early days had a lot of gentle beauty. Conversations, sharing, beautiful images and clips. Since the orange takeover of Washington and the resultant exodus from Twitter/X, BlueSky has become Twitter of the left.

So I guess I’m still living in Mr. Z’s Neighbourhood

I love to travel. I love playing with my camera and sharing my experiences with others. And I truly appreciate the encouraging comments people have said about my various posts through the years. But really don’t want to be an unpaid AI trainer.  So I’ve pulled or privatized nearly all of my previous posts and photos. More about what I’m doing with them in an upcoming blog.

See ya round the [electronic] hood.