Putting Social Media into Perspective

I could have just searched for statistics instead of wasting a couple hours on two and half days on this. Why not just let the pros-sort the data.

Reddit just surpassed X in 2024 

In the last three years Reddit rose to 23% and X (formerly known as Twitter) declined to 22%

Pew Research

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Which social media platforms are most popular

https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/social-media/

 

50. free association posts on one blog page, this page, posted across 6 social media apps, in one day, just to see what happens. 

I’ve decided not to do another little experiment. Many posts across 5 social media apps in one day. X, FB, BS, M, and Th. Plus photos of paper notes on IG. 

I’ve feeling lonely today specifically because I miss all the “little” conversations with people on social media. 

I don’t feel like talking to people around me in the real. It’s a problem. It’s my problem, I know, it’s me. It’s an eye contact thing, and a couple other factors that I just don’t feel like dealing with today. 

Right now I’d rather hear what other people want to talk about rather than answer questions about myself. … Tired of myself. …. Want to be distracted.

Why do I have to have a point? What if I just want to be? …. Sit on a rock and listen to the world around me. 

Social media was for a while for me and other people like me a place to listen, hear what people wanted to say enough to type. 

I really miss the cartoonists. Not just the published in the New Yorker cartoonists. But, the one who work so much their’s no way they can respond, they have to have a publicists friend/fan. 

I miss other artists. I loved to see some random work-in-progress. A photo from their walk. Listen to the view expanding details of their thoughts about art.

I miss other people’s pets. BFF is deadly allergic to cats. He gets a sinus infection, like for weeks, he’d be miserable if we had a cat. And I’m too annoyed by the noise, chewing and shit in the bags of dogs. 

 Shit in plastic bags is a trigger that reminds me of homeless people. Plastic bags add to the environmental impact of dogs. Carnivores adding to the meat industry, their life energy turned to shit, put in how many billions of plastic bags now? 

 How much people love dogs and cats, reminds me of how apathetic we are towards each other. We love our pets for scapegoats because we can’t love each other as much as we need. 

 See, I went there. I shouldn’t be “talking” I should be listening. Just enjoy the cute cat photos. Enjoy the dogs that bring home the bear cub. Don’t think about the fish runs or where is mama bear.

 I’m like that person who gives a raccoon cotton candy. Why would you do that? Raccoons want your goldfish or cat food. I don’t want to take selfies or ask for money. Guess I’m actually more like the raccoon then the cruel person who did that.

I don’t even know if I’m up for this social media test. Did you guess what it is? It’s quantity instead of “quality”. That’s what I’m trying to test. But, I need a plan better then just free association posts in a list. 

I cut up slips of paper while I ponder what to do next. I like paper. I like ink, all types of coloring pencils, pastels, charcoal and yes even crayons, and I enjoy brushing all types of paint. 

Hate that Apple add where it smashed up all our favorite things, in the same way that Apple has destroyed hard drives of my personal data – twice. 2007 when I got a new laptop. And this year when iCloud gutted my 2008 iPhone destroying years of personal photos why? For their profit?

I think 100 text posts may be too many. I’m at 17 and am already thinking, 50 is a better quantity sample size. But, even 50 may be a bit too much. We shall see I guess?

 If I’m starting to get bored, how bored must you be if you are trying to read this? What social media app are you on? Have you done a test like this yourself? 

This is only a test of the social media by a broad casting texts out via copy & paste. If this was a photo of my bare ass would you “listen” or heart me?

 Everybody likes a full moon. 

I think they do. 

Let me know if you don’t like the moon.

It’s like fluffy clouds. Who doesn’t like a blue sky with fluffy clouds? I wonder what kind of person doesn’t like sky photos? 

Did you know that the internet isn’t finished? Yeah, not a joke, they started this ip - ping thing, and it took off and the code is half baked and rebaked, like 19 pies in the same damn pan, not one of the pies cleaned up. 

People, we need to understand the information age isn’t working as it could, not yet. Today we could actually have real global democracy. With all the complex flavors, sorted by subject by AI – all the URIs in URLs, enough for everyones’ voice and ideas.

That scares “them” you know. People are scary. It’s true. But, it’s simultaneously true that 97.5% of us just want to be. Love who we love, work on our own dreams, write our own words, make art, music, pottery, etc… 

When you think about human history. It’s scary. I hear the word communism and I see RED. I see blood. Same with monotheism, misogyny and racism. Except then I smell rotting flesh in shallow graves. Too soon. Next subject.

Yeah, sooooooooooooooo….? I never in 10-hundred-year-lifespans EVER imagined that I would attempt to write a political parody. I tolerate politicians as a necessary evil. 

 I sincerely love people. At a safe distance. As long as they aren’t bothering me. 

I’m on another level of introvert. I’m a recluse. If you meet me I exude nervous energy. I’m genuinely friendly. Honest. Can’t lie even when I want to. 

Enough about me. 

When I type some blurb about myself, or worse, a blurb talking about other people, I feel recursive guilt or more like this nagging feeling that grows into paranoia. Soooooooo….? Why am I typing this?

There’s no blathering on and getting a high from it for reclusive people like me. Talk therapy can actually have a negative impact if a person doesn’t like to talk (and/or) dislikes how the therapist thinks. 

The exception for introverts, the line,  is love. If you love me, and you actually listen, and I’m not paying you. I’ll still not get a release or feel good from talking, but I will move on knowing the next step is solid. 

Even when talking to “no one”. Texting faceless nicknames on a following/friends list, if the sentiment is real, even if we are just talking about a gif or food or the weather. Those little conversations are also solid to me. 

Accumulated read words add layers to our collective consciousness. Regardless of if words are in books, on a box of cereal, social media, paper letters, in the lame stream news, etc… – neurology has proven, if you see a word and you can read, you read the word. 

When you look at your social media feed do you see more people you know or more advertising, posts from groups and videos from strangers, most not even close to where you are. Scroll, do a count and reply if you like. 

 FYI, FB 156 friends, and I see less than 2 or 3 posts from people I used to talk with every few days. I asked an AI about this a couple years ago. It said, They are sorting by what is popular, because their goal is add revenue. 

 Some good news first. Since I’ve been complaining about this, I’ve actually been seeing more posts by people I know. But, check the dates. Today in FB I scrolled and counted 4 at a ratio of 3:1 people I don’t know, advertising, groups. Then a 5th from 3 days ago. 

I just made myself feel ill going down the list and seeing who posted this year. I didn’t make it all the way to the end of the list. I got to 76 to find the 4 posts I saw scrolling today. 

Time for lunch. I made some mixed leftovers pot pies cleaning out my freezer. Turkey soup, vegan green curry and potato to thicken the soup. It’s pretty good actually. 

 Scrolling FB profiles today, how many people posted in a ratio to the 4 I just scrolled and counted. 17/83 today, most hours ago, so technically shouldn’t those 17 posts have been in my feed before the 5th post from 3 days ago?

Today is Sept 5th, 14 more people posted in Sept. 30/83 profiles I checked. 16 more people posted in late August. I recall seeing only 4 or 5 of those, but it’s too far in the past to count as I’ve been mostly in-active on Social media. 

 Soooooooo…? I didn’t make it to 50 even. I’ve wasted half a day on this, and hell no! I’m not doing any charts or gathering any data on that horrible web site again. I can barely stand it, why expect others to go spend time there?

The next day, Sept 6th, 2024. To be fair, I’ve never really liked Facebook. – College app developed to posts who-is-hot-or-not, FB coined the term everything-but-her-face. = My personal name for Facebook is Facebutt. 

Well, I’m bored of being negative already. I know the world is actually half full of piss and almost everyone has a butt.  In that context Facebutt is a true enough name for the social media giant.

Something good? The year before I stopped being a regular on Twitter (now rebranded as X). I listed 365 things I like as a life-satisfaction exercise. IMO we should all do that. All at once. Everyone in the world should list 365 things they like. 

Just imagine if Everyone listed 365 things they like across all social media platforms?!!! It doesn’t have to be one thing per day all year. It could be as many as they can think of during lunch for as long as it takes to list 365 things. 

Listing 365 things you like is not as easy as it sounds. It’s a very good challenge, and you have to keep a list if you want to prevent repeats. But, it’s a big enough number to really make you think about what you like in your life.

Even if you don’t want to list 365 things you like, there are lots of little reality “exercises” you can do. Breathe and think about how you would spell phonetically what your breath sounds like. 

Be aware of the details of the world around you, even if you just sit and sense (with the senses your body has) and ask yourself. What is that? Texture, sound, smell, flavor, color, scale to me? 

Thank you for listening/reading. Know, you are not alone. We share the limited material of this planet together. Air, water, soil, mineral and most of all life energy. We are tinier than ants to the Earth, and each consciousness is as large as the known universe. ☮️+💚Uva Be

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Results from this test so far? 

So I posted the same 50 text posts on 5 different apps. It took 59 minutes and during that time or shortly after. 

I got 4 hearts, a new follow, who I followed back and a reply on Mastodon, 

One heart from 1/50 on Blue Sky, 

and later, two hearts and boost on threads. 

And the same friend who added a heart and a boost on threads, plus one friend from a past art work study clay studio 2 people for a total of 11 responses on FB. 

Also, I've been getting zero notifications from X for a while now. So no surprise, na da there. I think it is officially a dead social media app. 

So? I don't know yet. But, further experiments may be in the future. 

Not likely FB related. Probably more literary and serious or art related, Like ink October (#inktober) because, ya gotta make yourself happy. And what makes me happy? Art and writing. :) 

Day after results:

Saturday Sept 7th 1:30 after lunch. 

Two new heart/likes on FB.

Two replies on Threads. One was rather ify in tone, but, honestly I'm just thankful for the feedback to know that someone saw it. 

The other one was a positive conversation like the replies that used to happen all the time on old Twitter. 

And 1 more follow on Mastodon, but ... I don't usually follow back people with no posts, and iffy profiles. It usually leads to more harm than good. If you want a follow back, post something worth following. That's all. And IMO just being human and talking about stuff in the world is good enough. 

Tho, sorry, not for FB and IG. It's just too much bombardment from people who are not artists or cartoonists, writers or people leading group chats, etc... 

In conclusion the following Monday after 50 text test on 5 social media apps. 

Facebook, in-spite of my complaints, actually didn’t block me and I got more feedback there then I have gotten for years. 

I’ve scrolled my Home feed twice, the ratio of strangers to 1 post from Friends is still, 1 post from a friend to at least 4 with a blue link to follow, join, sponsor (a.k.a. advertising). I do think people responded to my activity with more activity, so technically Facebook is currently the most functional as a social media app.

Mastodon even tho much smaller pool of followers/following was second in feedback. 

Threads was a distant third. Also, tag CreativeThreads today resulted in exactly the type of posts I search for.

BlueSky is sorting posts in a more logical way I think? I guess it’s still functioning? Not sure yet. 

X? Zilch, nothing, since the last haiku I posted there. Formerly my favorite as the old Twitter, now dead last and the real reason I did this stupid test. X is completely broken unless you’re a troll, a bot, or #19 porn. 

Really? Seriously, asking. ... Am I THE cat lady?

 

Extraterrestrial Dog-person, speaking, while Cat-person types notes.

Lately I’ve been spending a bit more time on Facebook, since the decline of Twitter and the eventual transition into X. 

A couple of days ago after getting very disturbed by something I observed on Threads, that I couldn’t (still can’t) wrap my mind around. I found myself on Facebook strolling the videos. Something I DO NOT DO… I can’t stand 97% of videos on the interwebs. Personally, I’d rather read instructions. Yeah, I’m’ one of those people. I’m also (perhaps ironically?) a film person, as in used to use actual film, as an art form, because it was beautiful stuff. 

I’m not against digital images, at all. They are just another art form, like oil painting versus clay and fired glazes used to make ceramic art, for tens of, thousands of years. They just aren’t the same thing. They are each their own stuff. 

Get to my point already? The types of videos most commonly shared on social media are… very slow, never seem to get to their promised punch line (click bait), apparently, on purpose? Are they keeping you there, because of adds on the side of the page or other area of your phone, if you are using FB on a phone, are there adds chosen for you, with your meta-data there, based on the length of the videos? 

Duh? So what? Your point? I know artists animators and filmmakers can and do make better short videos. Why aren’t we (the collective we) watching those? 

Yes, I do look at statistics and of course, Facebook is competing for the masses time/attention with YouTube. Etc… So, as the money goes, I have again, answered my own question. – Just not the quality question of why we spend our time, watching these, psychology based anger-equals-clicks,  slow, boring IMO, -- why these videos?! … #question. 

Again and again, I answer my own questions. The lizard brain (if you let it) will watch cute animals, and things that make us angry (like hurt animals) or people being mean to other people – apparently for hours. 

Soooooooooooo? (my favorite word lately, is so with too many ‘o’s as a question, to release stress. Like a good exhale. 

Soooooooooo, ... -- I am asking, because that is what I do. Question and triple-fact-check everything, ...

sincerely, and (I suspect) possibly one of THE original childless “cat” ladies, 

☮+💚(peace and love), @Uva_Be 

change and stay the same

UBD's 1990's art

 

Some things stay the same ...

June 21st 2024

As I work away from this story, (Un-Un-Cat, the unfinished past replaced by the next project). Sanity slowly creeps in, in waves, like the tide. The mental conflict leveling over time like a heaping pile of compost turning slowly into rich soil. Yes, I implied it, it was shit, politics gobbled up all that it could and shat it out. 

But, plants and interesting critters remain waiting for me to feed them, some of them growing like weeds and feeding themselves, other habits gone wild and feral as a grumpy mood. It takes time to tame them. All things in their place in the chaotic garden that is a human mind.

☮+💚 @Uva Be

too much internet self-help mantra

 

digital marshmallows (search marshmallow test)

It is natural to construct a mental defense when bombarded by too much emotional stuff. 

It can become a challenge to accept yourself and your surroundings as is, when desensitized and bombarded by too much screen data. 

Today’s entire world view has been shattered by social media, it is not just you.

Who are you? 

Where are you? 

What is important in your life?

Breathe. Deep breathe, exhale. 

Repeat as needed. 

The long version.

Social Media and Lame Stream News, self-help mantra

What’s really upsetting me is – my entire world view and our collective consciousness has been shattered by irreconcilable data. 

I constructed a mental defense, what Jung calls a projection of identity. If I can work my thoughts out of these mental habits with better thoughts it would be good to do so. And if I need help, seek guidance.

The reasons why I constructed this mental identity projection are vast and complex, because life is not simple. And any who have lived know that life is not easy.

What is most important today is to diligently try to accept myself and my situation as I am, and to observe the actual reality around me as it is.

The extended world via the internet, while it is connects our lives via the time we live in, only specific threads are actually impacting my personal day to day life.

Yes, I acknowledge that I have an honest emotional response, but for my sanity I can only process a specific measure of the negative channel. Too much negative or even too much “world cake” the cute, and attractive, even the good things that are more than I can deal with on a personal level = less is better. 

We are great! --- a sarcasm fail

This post is an antidote to answer the question asked last Friday Oct 20th – Has evil won? That post is too depressing. I’m not depressed. I have anxiety and I worry. The primary symptom of anxiety is worry. I worry about depressing depressed people. The primary symptom for depression is shutting down and tho I haven’t experienced depression on this level it’s my understanding that depression is painful. While, I don’t want to delete last Friday's blog post, I also don’t believe evil has won… completely. 

Just FYI I’m no good at sarcasm, ask anyone, even those who only know me via chatting in social media. I’m actually literal. It’s easy for me to state that evil has NOT won on the scale of the global perspective or when data from all of human history is the foundation for contrast. 

a "door" from the past, mine from 1994

Metaphor – Time is a hinge. Now is a door. It’s not a door with a window, and we don’t get to choose between door number one or door number two. Now is just here, now. We can’t see what is behind the door now, because behind the door, the hinge of time has swung, and beyond now is the future. We can only make a guess based on the past because, reality. 

To understand now we must learn from the past. In the context of human history the voice of the people has come a long, long way. Democracy is like freedom, justice, and liberty for all in that if we take these for granted, all is lost. 

After World War II, after the great depression, a significant effort was made in the US to end famine (a.k.a. The dust bowl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl). And the good news is they totally succeeded. They being the US government working with farmers. If you look back at both human and global history a state of abundance such that the poor are fat, has so rarely been achieved that I can’t find a record of it EVER. (Maybe in some historically remote village with a pork eating festival, but neighbors on the same continent were simultaneously starving, anyways). 

The poor being fat was a contentious joke written in Shakespeare’s play about the history of democracy. In the play ‘Julius Caesar’ quote, saying to Brutus, "Let me have men about me that are fat; Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights: Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look; He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.” 

In Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar is expressing that he believes fat and happy people are less likely to be dangerous, as they are more content with their lives.

Fat and happy. We did it! Look at any grocery store in America and tell me, has there ever been a civilization in human history with this abundance of food? Please fact check, triple check, it is spreading to other countries, this phenomenon of food abundance that leads to the poor being fat. Global hunger is decreasing in all nations within the reach of our century’s brand of free market capitalism. In the USA, this abundance seems to have peaked in the 1980s, with the oil age, peak oil in the 1970s. And now we take it all for granted and complain about our diets. Yeah sure, heart disease has been the number one leading cause of death in the USA since the 1950s. It’s impossible to mentally separate the word fat from the dank shadow of the number one leading cause of death. But, it’s equally impossible to quantify the joy food brings to people, or measure the lack of suffering. If you ask any American today if they have ever gone hungry for a single day, it’s significantly tough to find anyone who has gone hungry in America for long enough to starve.... except for those who fast on purpose. — THAT is GREAT! Like really, actually, in the scope of all human history in the entire world, impressive and great.

Art by Douglas Coupland

Speaking of taking things for granted that are impressive and great – the internet. In the previous post the first line after the title. Has evil won? then the line …Has evil won the internet? And with the "interwebs" the whole wide world? Yeah, sarcasm fail. We talk about net neutrality. That’s really boring and I’ve already typed too many words so I will let someone good at sarcasm cover the topic. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_Neutrality_(Last_Week_Tonight_with_John_Oliver) 

I’m attempting to write a blog post about why we are great, and how evil hasn’t won, yet. Using my freedom of speech, and hinting at democracy has come a long way baby… in the context of world history, since the assassination of Julius Caesar by a group of Roman senators in Pompey during the Ides of March, 44 BC. 

Don’t take for granted YOUR public library. In the United States, it is estimated that libraries purchase approximately 10-15% of all books sold. Public availability of literature of edited source checked published quality is the receiving end, the quarter-back, of freedom of speech. 

According to the Association of American Publishers, total book sales in the United States in 2022 were $17.36 billion. This represents a 9.27% increase from 2021, and a 21.5% increase from 2019.

An important note, that dollar figure does not include all of the books that are purchased by libraries. Academic libraries and school libraries also purchase books, and these purchases are not included in the American Library Association's statistics.

Okay boring right? And we snooze over the news of the religious right banning books. And I complain about giant corporations sorting social media feeds by popularity, effectively silencing the voices of every day folks who only text one or two lines for public consumption into the post boxes on their platform of choice when they have some time in their busy work weeks. How laughable is that in the context of communication abundance and freedom of speech over human history or around the globe? Even today where entire nations of people are censored, via the internet we are information gluttons. And we are so great that we take our public library’s importance in our society and culture for granted, in much the same way we take for granted the food abundance of our grocery stores and restaurants.

The third way we in North America are great is another thing we take for granted – we the people value individual liberty and justice. This is a “pretty broad” statement, but you may be happily surprised to know that is it statistically measurable and that sociologist have been taking note of the actions of crowds that prove we care about and value the life and rights of other individual people. Since it’s science, they don’t prove we “care”, they measure how we gather (or not) in public spaces and if a society is individualistic or collectivistic. Sociologists measure walking pace from city to city, personal space nation by nation, greeting formality everywhere people greet one another,  etc… But, when I was reading some books on the topic of crowd mentality, one aspect where Americans stood out was trampling injuries and deaths at sporting events. In America we gather at sporting events in significant numbers, but we plan for the event to be safe and we don’t trample each other to death as frequently as similar scale events around the world. Prevention is difficult to measure, so if this statistic is only due to stadium safety planning alone. All those maxim occupancy signs and emergency exits, they don’t just happen. We took actions to protect the lives of people in crowds, and businesses, because we care. 

To be fair, the conditions of the worst trampling in recent history are tragic. Planners of large events are aware of the factors that increase crowd trampling risk. In the US guns, automobiles and alcohol have ruined an otherwise respectable level of event safety. And fear is the mind killer. When people feel safe we make better choices, even when in a hostile crowd mentality situation. When anyone falls in a sport event in America, athlete, bystander, coach or member of any production team, the action stops, because we care.

In another country (I have mentally blocked out where), a group of people were beating other people to death inside of a food shop, a fast food cafe. And no one helped them. People took out their cell phones and took video and just stood there. This happened more than once, I don’t know how many people they beat to death, or how many terror events with groups of passive observer bystanders there were. I don’t know if this was happening before cell phones or not. In America there are many examples of strangers standing up to and fighting off attackers, people they never met, people who just happened to be in the same place at the same time, defended and saved lives. People proved they cared with their actions, in many ways, from following maxim occupancy guidelines, or by helping others to an exit, to the extreme case of removing a gun from a shooter while other people tackled him. To the best of my understanding, if there are examples of people standing there taking video but otherwise doing nothing to help, in America it is because of a fear/power imbalance. Most commonly, this imbalance was caused because the attackers were police in uniform. And even in these cases, the bystanders are often yelling, some try to stop the police or they tell them, at the risk of harm to themselves, that they are taking a video of the attack. I believe we “care” about the lives of strangers and these actions of helping one another is part of what make us great. Fact check what I just type out in the above paragraphs. Even a chart with guns per capita (we have a lot of guns) and murders per capita, in nations all around the world, the statistics prove what I am trying to express. According to the UN report on crime. The US Homicide rate is 6.4 to 6.38 per 100,000 people, per year. To 120.5 guns per 100 Americans. Homicide rank in the world 55th/gun ownership #1. Those numbers are not great, but we are surviving, beating the odds in spite of them, in my opinion, because we care.

We are great. We just need to use what we do best to work together to save ourselves from those who seek to divide us, -- for. their. profit. What do we do best? Free market capitalism, see our food abundance and the carbon debt and health risk, and national surpluses, that we can only mitigate at the production level.  Freedom of speech, we are communication gluttons, what repercussion to history will happen if we figure out via our great experiment with democracy how to hear everyone, not just the loudest voices. And we value human rights, life and liberty for every individual. It’s not a contradiction, it is a balance of power and an awareness of what we have to be thankful for, and what we have to lose.

P.s I made this graphic in response to another graphic I didn't like. I thought, I don't like that graphic or quite a few of the concepts expressed by it, so make one that I do agree with/like and here is it. 

Now what? That is the question

 The inevitable break-up with social media, the classic phrase fits "it's not you, it's me". 

Weary of talking about my "feelings", I just quit. Stare at plants with a wordless mind, admire the beauty of all the details of a quietly growing life. Life is good.

Carbon debt paid for all of us by Plant Blindness, plant blindness, how something breathing for you gets called a weed. 

P.s. Monday October 2nd, 2023 -- I've started drafting the next project. I may do NaNoWriMo again just to "pick-up-the-pace" force me to "word-vomit" a lot of thoughts out all at once.

P.s. #2 -- meanwhile it's October and I remembered I forgot #inktober, again. So? I'll do a bit of that. 

P.s. #3 -- A few weeks, what felt like days, October 4th, today is the 16th. I remembered that I forgot #inktober again, and thought. I can do that. That’s how I’ll “deal” with social media. But, after one day, it’s clear to me that is not what I want to do. Someone in the room said. Busy people don’t have the “bandwidth” to post, and reply to thousands of people. Unless that is your career or entertainment time, then don’t. And, they were correct. If you want to focus, sharpen a grove in mind to work like a good tool, it’s enough of a challenge just to process the day to day people around the actual space one is living in. 

A painter I admire, in Portland OR, Lucinda Parker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucinda_Parker 

I have a memory from the 90s, when I was trying to accept a life as an artist, I hear her saying, you have to be “selfish” to make it as an artist, ignore other people to get work done. 

We are all living in an endless river of questions, a mind is a filter, grey water and laundry, catch the “lint” of noise. Let the dust bunnies grow into dust bears, just know where their claws are.

Everyone has their own opinion. It’s endless. Level three riff raff, … until it isn’t. 

What are you going to be? 

Now, distill that thought down into a haiku? 

#haiku title: ponder alone

being together

endless river of questions

clouds carry answer

Photo from 2017, before Oregon burnt all the way to the coast in 2020.

Conversations in the old Tweet river

 A blog post about Twitter -- and the big 2022 44 billion sell-out.

How has social media changed your daily routine?

I asked this question on 2 sites and posted a poll asking the same on two more because social media has changed my routine gradually over the years. And I'm attempting to decide what to do about it, Dec 2022.

(Jan 2023 I'm working on focus on the real, where I'm at more). 

In 1999 there was only forums, or that's all that I knew of. I searched for very specific networking for my art and writing.

In 2005 I joined MySpace. I actually found local music and art events to go to, and started "collecting" cartoonists and contemporary artists of all types, people whose work I liked. But, it wasn't a daily routine thing, yet. I just checked in when I was bored.

FB is not worth mentioning because it sucks people in, there's no escape to find art there in my experience. I've also tried a few writing groups and also, no joy. The site annoys me too much and I close the tab. Yes I said tab, in a browser. NO I don't load these horrible *beeping* apps onto my phone.

My daily routine wasn't changed until about a year after I joined Twitter. I found lots of fun conversations there. I checked in and replied to people. They became part of my daily consciousness. The poems, and very short stories and art. Then gradually it went sour. Politics stuff I never thought much about before now also became part of my daily routine.

It did change me quite a lot. And now? It's like Pandora's box has been opened and there's no shutting that box. For me, especially as related to #climateChange and wishing for more climate action that's not happening.

Since the Billionaire bought Twitter I log in there and block people, every single day. So, I've divided my social media lunch breaks from work into four social media sites. Mastodon, FB including IG, a few threads on Reddit, and last check-in is usually with Twitter, only to check notifications and then close that cesspool in the same way that is used to check notifications and then close FB.

Yep, even with limited exposure social media has definitely changed my daily routine. To answer my own question -- How has it changed my daily routine? I read and reply to strangers almost daily. At least 6 days per week. I pay a lot more attention to what is going on in the world than I used to. That's how I guess?

#haiku title: words in boxes

cross posting four times

quadruple social bypass

and I feel quiet

On Mastodon I posted an alt image photo description. Mastodon @indieweb.social@Uva_Be

Today, (Dec 16, 2022) I've 3,310 Twitter Followers (and dropping steadily). I'm Following 3,263 (also dropping without me unfollowing anybody). 

Jan 23rd, 2023 -- 3,309 Followers / 3,264 Following. Not much has changed except the time I don't spend there.

 I have a social page on my blog. www.uvabe.com, there are page links on the top bar click on social. I will update this page with current data. 

+  @Uva_Be 

(emoji translation = peace and green heart = environmental love, brain = thoughts with you, and remember to breathe with the trees, world).

P.s. Not an influencer that I know of. I just chat/reply with people, mostly on my social media lunch breaks, or if I'm bored, like waiting for something. And if you go to my other pages, you will see I share my art, write some times, take photos out in the world here and there, and will take photos of food as art. Food is good art IMHO. Or sometimes I'll check-in with the world when there are news events or happenings. 

Dealing with Social Media

If a bot posts "hello world", is it me saying hello to you? Not that I'm a robot, of course. But, in the massive app forest of virtual trees falling silently unheard, do you hear my voice?  

When is anything real? Even when out walking, out of the boxes with floors, out of the automobile's door, shoes making stepping noises on the ground, our mind navigates around dreams of the future and memories of the past.

This is a test, this is only a test, if I really had something to sing, if I had a story to tell or an idea to share, I would, I will, when I can, I promise. 

Meanwhile, 28 episodes of Un-Un-Cat wait for an ending.  Unapologetically free to read because they are unedited* catharsis. 

Link to list of Un-Un-Cat episodes in order

*I did try to edit this story, and had a beta reader, but that's it. IMO edited means a finished written work worthy of publishing, not just posted words-in-progress.

P.s. This blog post really is just a test. I'm testing cross-posting via an app. It seems short. I don't know what else to post here so I'll add a couple links I guess and call it. 

Autobiography In-Progress: art/writing on a timeline. This site is another list of links, this one on Google sites and it periodically breaks links to image galleries to my photos, that I posted before Google bought the site that hosted them.

In contrast www.UvaBe.com on good old Blogger has a smaller link-list of galleries and seems mostly fine.  

Well I better get to finishing some new ceramic art or writing soon. 

Thanks for reading,  +  @Uva_Be