With the world apparently going crazy and with an axis of evil growing around the so-called BRICs, increasing tensions in the Middle East, no sign of peace in the ongoing war in Ukraine and a likely Trump presidency in less than two weeks, it is hard to find any sanity.
Online social media only seems to add fuel to the fire. Twitter, especially since Elon Musk's takeover, has become a turgid mess of conspiracy theories and the far-right battling with those that once inhabited this space. While Trump's so-called Truth Social has gained ground and risen in value, Twitter has lost nearly 80% of its value since Musk bought it. Threads, Facebook/Meta's answer to microblogging, has gained some traction but still remains a less dominant platform than Twitter. And of course there's Telegram, an encrypted service which facilitates users being able to post content that would be censored on any of the aforementioned sites. And then there's the slightly calmer world of Bluesky, set up by Jack Dorsey after selling his social network to Musk.
There are many who understandably want to jump ship from Twitter, especially given what Musk has turned it into. Users are continually plagued by Bots and spam. Reporting such accounts rarely results in those accounts being banned. And simply 'blocking' those same accounts won't actually block them in the same way, in as much as the blocked accounts will still be able to view your posts.
But jumping ship has many pitfalls. The main one is that many of the accounts and people one might follow may not be on Bluesky. And persuading those individuals to board another boat may not be easy. How many people do you know who still use a Hotmail or Outlook account despite the many advantages of having a GMail/Google account?
Musk's change to the way users are 'blocked' on Twitter/X resulted in a surge of people 'migrating' to Bluesky. The exodus of users fleeing to Bluesky was reportedly in excess of half a million users joining the service in a day.
It's not the exodus that has occurred. Many Twitter/X users also began setting up Mastodon accounts some months ago as it was speculated Musk's social media platform might collapse in on itself. So far that has yet to happen. And many of those Mastodon accounts have largely become dormant and inactive.
The biggest problem for many of those shifting to another platform is maintaining a presence on two or more platforms. Establishing a new presence on Bluesky is all well and fine but continuing to maintain a presence on Twitter/X now demands one to post everything to two accounts.
Why bother, one might ask oneself. Well, the issue is one of interaction with a base that one has established on Twitter/X. Simply throwing the baby out with the bathwater and only posting to Bluesky essentially cuts off communication with hundreds or even thousands of 'followers', many of whom are unlikely to move to Bluesky unless Twitter/X completely collapses.
This is an existential dilemma for many microblogging users. Even the Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has left the board of Bluesky, the decentralised social network he helped start, and encouraged users to remain on his first site, now owned by Elon Musk and renamed X. In fact Dosey even deleted his Bluesky account entirely in September 2024, some four years after he founded the platform.
While maintaining a minimal presence on Twitter/X Dorsey has focused more on his new venture Nostr.
For old school social media users, Bluesky users will find it less based around algorithms. They may also find themselves less bombarded with bots, spam and ads, though this too could change.
The future however may well result in many old school users abandoning all these platforms altogether. It has very much become a minefield. Trying to navigate past the dross of 'suggested posts', ads and spam has become tiresome. Scrolling has become a time wasting exercise with little or nothing to show for it.
The same is becoming true of YouTube with having to negotiate past endless ads which adblockers are in a constant cat and mouse game to circumvent.
While the advent of the Internet was exciting, it has become more and more a frustration over the years as one tries to avoid pop-ups, ads and unwanted content.
While I am certainly not a Luddite when it comes to technology, the changing face of the online world is more a hindrance than a help at times.
Google's retirement of platforms or attempting to force people onto paid subscription services has not helped. Google Music was great, but the free version of YouTube Music falls flat in comparison. The subscription free version of YouTube similarly is almost not worth the effort.
MySpace and Friends Reunited have been consigned to history while Facebook is also becoming less relevant as people want instant gratification with the likes of Tik Tok, SnapChat et al.
In this swirl of digital detritus, there is a growing number of people who, quite understandably, are beginning to abandon the online world and reaching for real books or playing CDs and DVDs.
While there are few that would wish a return to the early days of the Internet when we only had AltaVista and AskJeeves, the current state of the online world has become a digital tide of effluent. But sadly it's unlikely to get any better.
Oh well, where's that book I was reading?
tvnewswatch, London, UK
Online social media only seems to add fuel to the fire. Twitter, especially since Elon Musk's takeover, has become a turgid mess of conspiracy theories and the far-right battling with those that once inhabited this space. While Trump's so-called Truth Social has gained ground and risen in value, Twitter has lost nearly 80% of its value since Musk bought it. Threads, Facebook/Meta's answer to microblogging, has gained some traction but still remains a less dominant platform than Twitter. And of course there's Telegram, an encrypted service which facilitates users being able to post content that would be censored on any of the aforementioned sites. And then there's the slightly calmer world of Bluesky, set up by Jack Dorsey after selling his social network to Musk.
There are many who understandably want to jump ship from Twitter, especially given what Musk has turned it into. Users are continually plagued by Bots and spam. Reporting such accounts rarely results in those accounts being banned. And simply 'blocking' those same accounts won't actually block them in the same way, in as much as the blocked accounts will still be able to view your posts.
But jumping ship has many pitfalls. The main one is that many of the accounts and people one might follow may not be on Bluesky. And persuading those individuals to board another boat may not be easy. How many people do you know who still use a Hotmail or Outlook account despite the many advantages of having a GMail/Google account?
Musk's change to the way users are 'blocked' on Twitter/X resulted in a surge of people 'migrating' to Bluesky. The exodus of users fleeing to Bluesky was reportedly in excess of half a million users joining the service in a day.
It's not the exodus that has occurred. Many Twitter/X users also began setting up Mastodon accounts some months ago as it was speculated Musk's social media platform might collapse in on itself. So far that has yet to happen. And many of those Mastodon accounts have largely become dormant and inactive.
The biggest problem for many of those shifting to another platform is maintaining a presence on two or more platforms. Establishing a new presence on Bluesky is all well and fine but continuing to maintain a presence on Twitter/X now demands one to post everything to two accounts.
Why bother, one might ask oneself. Well, the issue is one of interaction with a base that one has established on Twitter/X. Simply throwing the baby out with the bathwater and only posting to Bluesky essentially cuts off communication with hundreds or even thousands of 'followers', many of whom are unlikely to move to Bluesky unless Twitter/X completely collapses.
This is an existential dilemma for many microblogging users. Even the Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has left the board of Bluesky, the decentralised social network he helped start, and encouraged users to remain on his first site, now owned by Elon Musk and renamed X. In fact Dosey even deleted his Bluesky account entirely in September 2024, some four years after he founded the platform.
While maintaining a minimal presence on Twitter/X Dorsey has focused more on his new venture Nostr.
For old school social media users, Bluesky users will find it less based around algorithms. They may also find themselves less bombarded with bots, spam and ads, though this too could change.
The future however may well result in many old school users abandoning all these platforms altogether. It has very much become a minefield. Trying to navigate past the dross of 'suggested posts', ads and spam has become tiresome. Scrolling has become a time wasting exercise with little or nothing to show for it.
The same is becoming true of YouTube with having to negotiate past endless ads which adblockers are in a constant cat and mouse game to circumvent.
While the advent of the Internet was exciting, it has become more and more a frustration over the years as one tries to avoid pop-ups, ads and unwanted content.
While I am certainly not a Luddite when it comes to technology, the changing face of the online world is more a hindrance than a help at times.
Google's retirement of platforms or attempting to force people onto paid subscription services has not helped. Google Music was great, but the free version of YouTube Music falls flat in comparison. The subscription free version of YouTube similarly is almost not worth the effort.
MySpace and Friends Reunited have been consigned to history while Facebook is also becoming less relevant as people want instant gratification with the likes of Tik Tok, SnapChat et al.
In this swirl of digital detritus, there is a growing number of people who, quite understandably, are beginning to abandon the online world and reaching for real books or playing CDs and DVDs.
While there are few that would wish a return to the early days of the Internet when we only had AltaVista and AskJeeves, the current state of the online world has become a digital tide of effluent. But sadly it's unlikely to get any better.
Oh well, where's that book I was reading?
tvnewswatch, London, UK
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