Tag Archives: social media

Posted on by

While the “sky” is Blue(r), X users are fewer.

Greetings all, I hope this post finds you well. ICYMI, in social media news, over the last few weeks, Bluesky has gained a massive amount of users migrating (or as I like to call it “skygrating”) from X (nee Twitter) as a result of Elon Musk’s November 15 2024 new terms of service. I personally find the skygration reasons legitimate, and that’s to mention many other reasons regarding what the platform has became since Elon took over. Before I continue, I’ll give you some chronological back history of my existence on social media platforms similar to both Bluesky and X

  • 2001: Joined BlackPlanet
  • 2004: Joined MySpace
  • 2006: Joined Twitter (user #14023, Nov 21, 11:52pm)
  • 2014: Instagram
  • 2017: App Developers Network (adn.net, Mar 14, 1:24 pm (now pnut.io))
  • 2017: Mastodon
  • 2023: Bluesky (user #25950, Apr 19)

Mastodon was my first taste of using a decentralized network, but I really didn’t use it that long because it didn’t interest me and felt like it was just another social network to keep track of, along with the fact that I wasn’t very familiar with the benefits of using a decentralized network.. I won’t go into detail reasons on why I continued to use the above platforms other than MySpace, at that time, was THE place for sharing music on many levels, BlackPlanet was my OG simply because of why and for who it was created to attract, Instagram was to socially share photos in a way you couldn’t on Flickr, for example. ADN was more a tech atmosphere and, finally, Bluesky, the so-called Twitter replacement.

While this post is not about why I like Bluesky and why I am deactivating my main X account after 18 years, but more about my observations about the massive skygration from X users to Bluesky. As of I type this, Bluesky shows me that I have 2000 followers and following 1500. In my 18 years on X, I’ve never achieved numbers that, on both sides, just because how I’ve continued to use the platform. I was, and still am, of the mindset: quality over quantity, when it comes to social media engagement. I’ve always been more of a consumer of information that interests me vs a social butterfly, so that information I tend to bookmark, archive, whatever such that I can make future use of it accordingly. I’ve also always provide enough in my social media bio to let people generally know what kind of person I am in terms of my interests followed by the general content I post. The combination of the two, I figure (just like everyone else) helps one make a decision as to if they want to follow me or not, as those are the first two things I look at when making my decision.

What I’m finding interesting on Bluesky is the amount of people that follow me (presumably as a result of the skygration) but seem to have nothing in common with me, coupled with the fact that some have followed well over 1000 users, but zero posts, and very little following them back. A general rule of thumb for me I never guarantee a follow back when you follow me (back to the quality over quantity thing). Secondly, having zero posts means I first need to see what you are posting about until I even follow you. Bluesky has instituted a somewhat recent feature called “starter packs”. A starter pack is essentially a group of people who share the same interests, this group (list) is made up by a user and present to the “skyline” for other users to peruse and decide who they want to follow in the group. I suspect that many go through starter packs, sometimes following the whole group, sight unseen, or cherry picking whot they follow, even if a said user has zero posts and/or being followed by other users they have have seen before. I suspect that is how my followers numbers grew to 2000 quickly since 15 November. I’m starting to see the crypto accounts and scammer/AI bot accounts make it over slowly as well – two out of four which I engaged with personally and have now disappeared, the other three I have blocked without engagement. I’m sure more will come.

I’m seeing an influx of content and users from X that share my interests and its very slowly resembling my experience on X, without all the mess that X is now carrying. As of today, Bluesky has exceeded 2 million members. Apparently I have “elder” status there (and if X defines it the same, on there as well). We’ll have to see, as time goes by, how things unfold, based on this article, Bluesky Says It Won’t Screw Things Up. I’m liking Blueskly and glad I got the invite when I did. In the meantime, I’m maintaining an account on X which has the sole purpose of being used to document my #100DaysOfCode journey and interact/receive information on space startup/Python coding/various other tech interest content from users that have yet to make it over to Bluesky. X’s November 15 ToS states that all public tweets will train it’s Grok AI entity….good, mine will train it on Python….something far more useful than much of the GARBAGE it is and will continue to be trained on. As for my main account, as soon as can follow desired accounts from my new account, I will deactivate my main account.

That’s it fornow. Be well, be safe.

Oceans of rhythm…

Fresh.

Posted on by

Eject….

Greetings…

9:35pm – I just realized that February might have gotten away from me without a post because I’m shooting for at least one per month.

Tonight this post is prompted by the fact that I’m definitely feeling info overload…mainly from mobile screen time. Some how (I don’t remember when(, I set my phone to quiet time at 8pm. Today when I got the reminder, I thought this would be a great habit to get into but, as we know, new habits require consistency, and hold habits are hard to break. I’ve read Atomic Habits by James Clear, get his newsletters, follow him on IG, etc. Really like Cal Davenport’s “Deep Work” (really need to execute and re-execute that mindset) and Digital Minimalism, but not doing and only reading is not the move.

So, yeah, of course I can just put the phone away – it would be cool to not even get in front of mobile device, let alone the computer, before close to bed time. I think I really need to make this move. I’m really starting to thing the constant dopamine hits from using social media isn’t good….

This post was originally gonna be much longer but, now that I got this far, it’ll just be rambling on an old topic. Gotta be a “piss or get off the pot” thing…

I’m going to bed, 4:50am is gonna come quick.

Peace.

Fresh.

Posted on by

The Social Media Trends Bandwagon – Do you “do you”?

I have a friend I met online about 15 years ago, right around the time I began podcasting. Some years later she decided she wanted to do her own podcast and wanted to leverage my little experience in that area of preparing audio media for such. The name of her show was “Let’s Talk About It”, so that being said..let’s do that..let’s talk about the trends that are born and die on social media (sometimes die) and how people participate… or not.

Without going deep (simply because I have not that time in the least bit), many of us have used social media in some shape or form since it’s been created (remember when the term was called “social networking?). All the old messenger platforms, like AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), Window Messenger, MySpace, Facebook, BlackPlanet, Asian Avenue, 2600, Usenet Groups, Compuserve, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, Periscope, Vine (which I miss…LOL) Mastodon, and the longggg list goes on.

What is inherent to all social media/networking platforms are trends, and I don’t mean “such-and-such hashtag” is trending. What I do mean are actions people take, trends that started than many participate in.grab on to that catch on like wildfire. There have been sooo many that’s I’ve seen come and go that I’ll try to remember some to discuss. Incidentally, this topic came to mind because the approach I generally end up taking is: If everyone is doing it, I’m definitely not doing it LOL

To avoid being wordy, I resolve to my usual list to give some example and touch on a few.

  • The use of stable fusion technology to create AI Art (particularly of selfies)
  • TikTok Invisible Body Challenge
  • Wordle
  • Age prediction photos (this is how I’ll look X amount of years from now)
  • Milk Crate Climbing Challenge

Why these trends emerge, last for some time, then die off, can be for many reasons. I’ll venture to say that many of them do so for the simple reason of what social media perpetuates: reach and exposure which hopefully results in follows and likes of one’s social media feed. Though I make a point not to follow any of them, I do notice what the algorithms throw onto my feeds. Let’s start with the first one…

#AIArt – I’ve been noticing a bunch of people using whatever this stable fusion technology is to create very realistic and accurate drawings of themselves. With that, I’ve seen a fair number of people criticizing this as technology that takes away from the most talented artists that can do the same by hand (nothing new here with AI taking over in instances like this). I’ve seen a few people I follow posting selfies of themselves in this manner.

TikTok Invisible Body Challenge – This one is particularly interesting to me because of the cybersecurity issues that many are clueless about. What is this challenge, you may ask? It goes like this: challenge requires you to film yourself naked while using TikTok’s “Invisible Body” filter, which removes the body from the video and replaces it with a blurry background and this challenge has led to people posting videos of them allegedly naked but obscured by the filter. First of all, why would ANYONE have no issue with “film yourself naked while using TikTok’s “Invisible Body” filter” (someone, help me on this … please). It gets even “better”…”hackers are capitalizing on this trending challenge named to install malware on thousands of devices and steal their passwords, Discord accounts, and, potentially, cryptocurrency wallets. To capitalize on this, threat actors are creating TikTok videos that claim to offer a special “unfiltering” filter to remove TikTok’s body masking effect and expose the TikTokers’ nude bodies. However, this software is fake and installs the “WASP Stealer (Discord Token Grabber)” malware, capable of stealing Discord accounts, passwords and credit cards stored on browsers, cryptocurrency wallets, and even files from a victim’s computer.” This is pretty much what I’m referring to by jumping on the social media trends bandwagon – doing things just because it’s a trend and you know clue of what the implications could be (especially in a case like this) because you’re essentially acting like sheep. You can read more about this challenge and the hacking approach here.

Wordle – I have no idea what this game is or how it’s played but I number of people I follow on Twitter pepper my feed with their daily Wordle results

Age prediction photos – This one’s seem to die off but, boy, I’ve seen a ton of followers jumping on this one BIG time. Sort of the same use of AI thing as #AIArt. Lately I’ve seen the same approach but applied to dead celebrities who’s been deceased for some time now, but showing how they would look if they were still alive today.

Milk Crate Climbing Challenge – One of the DUMBEST, ignorant, and most dangerous challenges I can remember seeing in some time. I’m glad that one is dead and gone….(isn’t it?).

As said above, if the proliferation of such is even noticeable, you won’t catch me involved (can you say TikTok? – that’s an entire different story that I don’t even understand regarding the continual security concerns with the platform).

Anyway, do you indulge? No judgement here, just asking for a friend 🙂

Have a great day!

Fresh

Posted on by

Twitter and the (bitter)sweet 16!

Greetings all. I hope you’re well. Today (actually tonight at 11:43:36 pm) will mark the 16th birthday of being a Twitter user. My very first tweet is below:

I’ve seen the the evolution of Twitter since pretty much the very beginning, as the platform was just seven months old when I joined. Back then it was a veritable shell of what it is now – very quaint, innocent devoid of ads, the whole nine yards. It was not uncommon at all to see tweets about the most simplest (most would say mundane now) things such as what one had for breakfast, lunch, dinner, etc to running errands, and the like (way before cats took over the internet). It was a fun time, easy going, with no such things as bot accounts, 2FA, blue tick marks, Twitter spaces, political arguments, and the like.

I’ve always found Twitter to be very useful for what I need to get out the platform – specifically as a vast resource of information that keeps me learning about topics that interest me, primarily those in the tech world, and allow me to learn a great deal. There came a timeframe where I didn’t engage in Twitter as much but even when I came back, things changed very little.

Since the news of, and actual purchase of Twitter by Elon Musk, the platform, users, employees (those still left) and the news media have been in an uproar about the predicted fate of Twitter based on Elon’s recent actions. A good summary blog post (with linked articles) was recently written by Clay Lowe, another prolific blogger and Twitter friend of mine. You can find it here, it’s highly recommended.

Clay, myself, and many many other Twitter users have set up camp over at Mastodon, for various (and mostly obvious) reasons. The consensus across most of media is that Twitter will go up in flames, thanks to Elon’s continued activities. There are plenty of what I like to call “chicken little/doomsday” articles and tweets that predict Twitter’s demise. As for me, I’ll believe it when I see it. I don’t plan on leaving Twitter until I deem it to no longer be of use to me nor aligns with my desire for what I think the platform should be. I, like Clay mentioned, have requested a download of my entire account activity which is supposed to be ready for me within 24 ours of the request. As of this post, it’s been almost 48 hours and I’ve received zero notification of status. This is not the first time I requested it. There has been a mass exodus of Twitter employees over this past weekend, some of which belong to Twitter’s engineering team, so I suspect it’s possible it may be longer or I may never receive it – at this point, it is what it is.

As for Mastodon engagement, I learned of a crosspost feature called MOA that will auto-crosspost my tweets so that takes care of my engagement there. In any event, I’m still tweeting as nothing has occurred that will drive me away….at least for now.

Hmm, amongst all the craziness happening on the platform…..I wonder if I’ll still get a birthday card from them…LOL.

oceans of rhythm…

Fresh

Posted on by

Social media’s growing influence (and distraction)

Ok, I get it…old hat, right, right. How ironic is it that I have written this post to primarily appear on social media (my Twitter account).

With regards to the subject of this post, I’ve read what feels like a countless number of articles on reducing social media distraction/improving productivity – and after all is said (read) and done, the simple bottom line is – just (don’t) do it – close the tabs, kill the notifications, put the phone in the other room, delete the apps etc.

I will attest, from experience, that for the first time since 2008, I’ve lost the desire to spend a very great deal of time on Facebook, to the point of it being down to five to ten minutes a day only to check on the few FB groups I am an admin on. This final new found freedom is more than very nice. Similarly, I’ve been off Instagram for a month now and I’m feeling the same about that platform. What is left, is Twitter, a platform I’ve been an early adopter of (since November 2006). The truth is, as toxic as Twitter has been known to become, I draw value from it – it feeds my ever-increasing knowledge of topics I’m interested in – and the type of feeds that do this are 95% of the time not personal feeds, so by tailoring my followers list, I avoid a lot of what I consider to be toxic, immature, foolish, etc (sometimes that leaks through via other user retweets, but…what can I do there? It’s not frequent).

Anyway, as I enter in to the last quarter of the year, this second annual sabbatical ended up better than last year’s. My hope is to redirect the time spent on social media as I did, to accomplish much more, in preparation for 2020.

oceans of rhythm,
Fresh

Posted on by

The Phone Zone – Lessons in Reduction

Greetings and good evening….

As is often said, “Where did the month go?” Three more days until we enter in the last quarter of 2018. It’s just after 9pm and it was a long day at work – two hour meeting followed by coming up to speed on various aspects of the current mission I’m working on, via a lot of reading. Top that off with the fact I should have gotten my tail in the bed earlier last night.

In any event, those of you that have been following my many blog posts this month, Darrenkeith and I have been on an accountability journey regarding this sabbatical we’ve both taken from Facebook, Instagram, and a few other social media sites (save Twitter), waxing philosophically as we go. As said earlier, what I thought (in the beginning) was spending too much time engaged in social media turned out that the result of that was the lack of putting my phone *away and out of sight*. I’m convinced now that is the crux of the issue – an issue that I’m glad became clear during this sabbatical. I’ve read and shared a few articles with you on the subject already and came across one that I shared with Darrenkeith this morning. It was interesting because it involved a handful of subjects who sought to deal with this particular issue in their own, separate ways. I’ll share a link to that article below. I’d be interested in reading your comments on the article. in addition, there is a podcast that I recently listened to that provides fantastic insight and balance on the exact topic of this blog post, it talks to considerations of persuasive technology.

Suffice it say, I’ve come up with a number things I plan to put in to play in hopes of dealing with the same, in a way that I hope to prove beneficial. That said, if I am a lot slower in getting back to you via text, Messenger, Twitter DM, and the like, as Jermaine Jackson sang “Don’t Take It Personal….” (it truly isn’t)… just attempting to return to a time, long, long, ago (LOL) of less distraction from mobile device-ism, less “device dopamine hits” and more movements towards being in a “tech-less” moment and goals achieving state.

In a few days, I’ll reactivate my FB account and deactivate my personal Instagram account but keep two music production Instagram sites for branding purpose – the only difference this time is that neither FB or IG apps will be back on my phone. All (what I continue to be) my best photos will be seen from my Flickr account from here on out. The pleasure of blogging from my own “theater” has returned this month, so be on the lookout for this relationship:

content creation > content consumption
(where content = blogposts/music/podcasts/photography/code/film score music and video)

Come 1 Sept, the rubber (of the sabbatical) meets the road (of reality) – let’s see what sticks after a month off.

Thanks for bearing with me….

:::oceans of rhythm:::

Fresh!

References:
1. Tech Titans Dish Advice About Phone Addiction – Great Escape – Medium
2. This World My Life – Darrenkeith
3. “Persuasive Technology” from Let’s Know Things – A podcast about context and the news.

NP: Lovely Standards/Amel Larriuex

Posted on by

Social Media Sabbatical (SMS): Day 23 – 23 Aug 18 – Using less social media – Pt. 3

Greetings all…

Long work week, but the good thing is one more day left, until a two-day break from it all. So, as those who have been keeping up know, I have eight more days until this FB/Instagram/Reddit/etc social media break OFFICIALLY ends. One major thing I have learned up to now is that it turns out it wasn’t just the social media scrolling that I thought was the issue. What I believe the truer issue is…constantly having the phone in my hand which leads to said scrolling every time I subconsciously needed that “dopamine hit”.

I came across an interesting article a few days ago that I purposely saved for this blog post – one that I find totally ironic. The title of the article is

Use the New Tools in iOS 12 and Android 9 Pie to Fight Your Phone Addiction.

I think you may be able to understand why I find this ironic. I do get it, in that the said features in both operating systems are supposed to make you aware of how much time your spending surfing, scrolling, clicking, and the like, in hopes that, in time, you will spend less time doing it. Thing is, the very thing it is trying to get you to do…involves the same tool you are trying to get away from.

For me, I have no interest in the tools. What I do have an interest for is continuing what I have attempted over the last week and that is just to “put the phone down”. Foundationally, it’s that simple…no?

My mom is staying with us for sometime, I sat down to eat dinner after I came home from work today and (this is a perfect example) pulled out my phone to check my Twitter feed while my plate was in front of me. In true “nother mode” she says…”Can’t you eat without your phone in your hand?” She was timely (as usual), but this time…so very, very correct.

That has been my biggest insight out of this sabbatical…admitting that I subconsciously had some form of FOMO, something I always said I didn’t have. Realizing and admitting it’s something to be dealt with, I’m up for overcoming the challenge.

Thoughts?

Thanks for the read…

peace,
Fresh!

Posted on by

Social Media Sabbatical (SMS): Day 20 – 20 Aug 18 – Using less social media – Pt. 2

Another workday Monday has come and gone. It was productive, tedious but productive. This morning, the usual diatribe occurred between me and my brother in podcasting/tech/photographer/music, DarrenKeith regarding our social media use, or lack thereof. The discussion was briefly about plans of usage when returning back to FB and IG after this break is over. Strangely enough, I stumbled across this Twitter post and thread today:

The OP stated essentially the same thoughts I’ve been having regarding my return to Instagram. The only thing different between her and I is that she has a successful business that she’s been using FB and IG to promote. Me, all I have are two secondary IG counts used for branding my music production activities as a personal artist and one half of AfterSix Productions.

Reading the thread further solidfied my thoughts about deleting my personal IG account. Only two IG followers reached out to me since 1 August to ask about what happened to my IG account (there are 5 followers total whom I let know ahead of time that the sabbatical was going to take place). As of this writing, I’ve already requested IG send me a download link to retrieve all my content. That site will be deleted no later than 31 August 2018 at 11:59pm. The other two IG accounts will remain. As for FB, I’m considering what I will do once I returned regarding how much time I will actually engage there. Twitter will remain, as it provides a relatively high ROI. Flickr will become my platform for photosharing.

Well, studies say that it typically takes 21 days to form a habit. Tomorrow marks the 21st day of sabbatical from both FB and IG. We’ll see how valid, IRL, those studies are…

Peace and blessings,
Fresh!

Posted on by

Social Media Sabbatical (SMS): Day 14 – 14 Aug 18

Greetings readers…

Hope all is well with you and yours. Ironically, another Twitter (and IG) friend, B.Tramuel, posted the link to an article entitled Managing Your Social Media Intake (Without Quitting it Completely). Our Twitter exchange went like this:

Yeah, I read the article and personally found it lacking only because it didn’t impart unto me anything I didn’t or not currently doing. In addition, I think it’s just plain common sense, HOWEVER, I don’t know it would be useful, especially in a day and age where immersing on social media COULD take up so much time that could be better well spent engaging with others IRL or even just taking time for self beyond the scroll/point/click….

I went fo a 2 mile run after I got home from work – it was good.

Goodnight,
Fresh!