Imperfect

social media good

Inspired by Cris' What Bear's social media refugees have in common.

Bear Blog is social media. More so when compared to other minimalist blogging platforms.

It reuses frictionless like buttons that remind me of Cris' quote from Matt's bearblog is cool:

When I make a post, and it doesn't immediately get any likes boosts or replies, my brain makes me think everyone hates me. (...) However, sometimes I get a kind email or a direct message out of the blue, and whenever that happens, it feels really special. I never expect it, because someone had to go out of their way to do it. With a social media post, the like button is right there...

It showcases popular and chronological feeds with posts from users who opted-in for post discovery. I appreciate the social serendipity such mechanisms offer my blog and I. However, these feeds regularly fuel discourse and optimization for popularity, consistency, and even belonging.

For how pseudonymous bloggers can be, it's shocking how much people display offers to network with each other these spaces. Look at how many different kinds of social media accounts they link to. People regularly share links to their personal microblogging profiles on platforms like Twitter, Bluesky, and Mastodon. Sometimes people drop links to more niche spaces like Discord servers or their professional LinkedIn profiles. Forum boards even make a rare appearance whether by hyperlink or being hinted at.

Yet, if you spend enough time on Bear Blog's social media side, I suspect you will taste its space-dependent "community" focus. Winther's Tildes comment on Bear is now source-available says:

The value Bear Blog provides isn't really with its tech, but with the community that is built around it.

Just look at how many of my own works were directly inspired by fellow writers. I'm not immune to that. Rather, I'm grateful how conducive likes and especially feeds are for expression. Combining that with other thought-provoking sources injects much intrigue into my online adventures.

This cauldron of recycled social media features, discourse, and priming goes a long way toward hinting at how ironic sayings like "social media bad" and "social media refugees" feel for such an inherently social medium.

Ava's social media dependency says:

And due to all time spent on there and almost everyone you meet being in on it too, I get the impression that it becomes this thing you just have to do, like paying taxes.

In the face of such peer pressure, what army stands beside you and how much agency do you wield? Pick your tools like you pick your battles. Sometimes, compromises become necessary. However, for many people out there, they can choose whether or not to partake in something like social media.

I do think "social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Tiktok" can fulfill "the innate human need for connection and community" for some. If you don't feel the same, you don't have to settle for it. Broaden your horizons toward other spaces which serve that need. Dive deeper into spaces until you feel at home. Combine both and see how far you get.

Speaking of distance, how often do we betray the unbounded, intangible personal connection of community for its bounded, tangible environments? How can communities grow from being constrained by their landmarks to vast, redundant, and people-shaped networks?

To me, "social media bad" signals "social media good". Sticking around and letting your public work accrete value over time is worth it. Doing so on blogs or elsewhere becomes even better through takeaways like Cris': trying chronological feeds, sharing your contact information, and sharing appreciation to authors whose works you enjoyed. Let's work together to win our games.

Yohann commented On social media and community:

So I logged into Facebook today. It was a mistake. I saw maybe one post from an acquaintance, and a torrent of ads on the page.

Compared to the imbalance of ads to content, I'm more curious about how he designs his social media environments and plans on blocking ads. Like with my directive to use ad blockers, more people ought to share their Internet tips and tricks for others to learn from. However, Herman's If Apple cared about privacy explains the absence:

... it's fairly trivial to set up an ad-blocker in Safari yourself. But so few people do.

Do you interface the few enough?

Yohann continues:

... no matter who you are, you can go online and find entire communities dedicated to hating people just like you.

Let's flip that on its head using the above principle. How can you go online and find entire communities dedicated to uplifting people just like you? Can you envision ways in which that's possible with and without social media? I suspect that a dash of optimism makes sufficiently answering these questions much easier.

Cris compares the Substack blogging platform to the shared blog they posted on:

After I deleted my social media accounts in late 2023, I immediately went looking for community through blogging elsewhere, and "stumbled" on Substack. I used the quotation marks there because (in my humble opinion) that platform has been astroturfed in the "blogging community" as a whole to oblivion. Sadly, it became everything that (I thought) it had set out not to become: yet another engagement farming machine. You can try to interact with people on there through the "notes" and the "chats", but you won't be able to "build" a community, not like the one we have here at the Gazette anyway.

While I don't share his opinion of Substack being astroturfed, let's assume that I do. Questions arise. Of Substack users whom I value for their creative process and survival, how do they navigate the platform well? Them thriving within such a social medium asks questions of how to contribute to, benefit from, and/or honor their mastery. On like platforms with such dense network effects, you could surprise yourself with how enriching their healthy pockets can be.

As for his take on where communities can or cannot emerge, I believe that this doesn't require spatial dependency. Instead, I see it benefiting from both spatial agnosticism and redundancy. It's the Internet after all: take advantage of just how many additional homes you can own compared to your physical self. Save your ultimate trust for the people who continually reciprocate respect, learning, and fun with you.

Interface whatever people, platforms, services, and tools to cultivate your communities. That said, you may be surprised at how much proper social media use could amplify both your online and offline experience, despite how frequently "social media bad" gets parroted.

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