I made the decision to leave Twitter. Well, I’m leaving until things improve there. Elon Musk has destroyed something fun and good on the Web. His decision-making is suspect at best as it comes to something outside his wheelhouse. I don’t think I will return anytime soon though. I am on the newly popular app Threads which seems to be growing quickly. You are welcome to follow me there at @tonyburgess1969. I hope to see you there.
So Facebook/Meta/Instagram has launched a rival to Twitter called Threads. I hope this will be a success if anything there needs to be some competition in the small blog space. If you want to follow me please feel free to.
Online life is quite an adventure.
I have noticed there are fewer places on the Internet for self-expression such as blogs. At one point and time, there were many places such as Multiply, Yahoo 360, Xanga, Typepad, Livejournal, and the like. Today it seems there are sites that are more dedicated to commerce and selling stuff. Even WordPress.com is going in that direction.
Blogger, one of the OG platforms has not been significantly updated in years. There are platforms such as Squarespace, Wix, and Weebly that have become more business-focused. Indeed the landscape is very different than it was in the 2000s and 2010s. For a deep dive into the history of blogging check out this article from Notre Dame of Maryland University.
Vlogging on YouTube, TikTok and even Instagram has become increasingly popular.
I don’t want to see Instagram and Facebook as the only places for sharing and community. Social media and networking are important. The more outlets the better. Let’s hope for more outlets in the future where old-school blogging still has a place on the web.
Sometimes just scrolling by something without commenting on it is the best thing you can do for your mental health and stuff like that.
On October 4th there was a six-hour outage of Facebook and Instagram. Those six hours might as well have been 6 days because it cost them huge financial losses. It was a great day for Twitter with all the extra visitors they were getting.
Facebook and Instagram have become necessary evils for connection, communication, community, and commerce. I ask the question are there viable alternatives out there that people could migrate to? I haven’t found one that does all the things Facebook does which is to their credit in how they keep people engaged and using their platforms.
I do know people who have given it all up and are fine. They have no regrets and no fear of missing out. More power to them.
For six hours many people had to find other things to do. I think some of them enjoyed being liberated. Everyone, including me needs that sort of break from being on the ‘Book or the ‘Gram for a while.
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