A Year in Social Media

I created a Bluesky account a little over a year ago. I was initially somewhat sceptical of adopting a third social media messaging platform, because I had become quite comfortable using Mastodon as a replacement for Twitter/X. However, certain individuals that I wished to continue to follow were migrating to Bluesky, so I followed suit. It has always been my long term goal to pick one of these two newer services and make it my sole point of presence in social media terms. So far that hasn’t happened. Hence a year on I find myself juggling three such platforms. Twitter/X, Mastodon and Bluesky. I post links to my blog posts on all of these services. To be honest none of them generate any tangible traffic but this is how you promoted your website or blog 15 years ago and old habits die hard.

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Get Your House in Order

Theoretically, the fallout from the Christchurch mass shooting should be far reaching. There is at present an opportunity to address numerous problems and issues while the tragedy still has both political and social momentum. Because “it is the doom of man that he forgets”. 24-hour news culture has severely strained the public’s attention span. Plus it is in the interests of numerous institutions for the news cycle to move on, because current scrutiny is highlighting how culpable they are. The tabloid press, media commentators, tech companies and internet communities have been found wanting for a while and last weeks carnage is now raising questions over their involvement in the growing culture of hate and therefore their potential regulation. This may be the last chance for many to put their own house in order before the establishment does. And considering the knee-jerk, ham-fisted nature of contemporary western politics, the latter is not likely to be either subtle, efficient or even beneficial.

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A Year in Social Media

The internet is awash with competing forms of social media, all offering a platform for you to interact with your peers. Although I feel that there are a lot of positive aspects to all these mediums, there is also a downside. Need I really catalogue all the iniquities of Twitter or Facebook? Let it suffice to say that the internet giveth and it also taketh away. Social media is like any other tool and therefore has to be used appropriately. If used correctly then it can be informative, entertaining and a great way to broaden your horizons. The alternative is a portal into a world of anger, stupidity and shit. 2015 was the year that I feel I finally got my personal relationship with social media right.

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