Social Media
-
The change certainly adds a new layer of meaning to a small thing that happened in 2020. The director had me remove a footnote in an article about the blog that thanked her for the wide latitude we had in the project. ↩︎
Bridgy Fed has temporarily slowed down in the direction from Bluesky to Fediverse because of all the new Brazilian accounts on Bluesky. Apparently a lot of the new Bluesky users have chosen to share with the Fediverse – another good sign for the open social web.
I really enjoyed Peter Pomerantsev, This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War against Reality (2019). He pursues his subject across much of the globe, seeking out people who have shaped fractured information spaces in pursuit of their activist or political consulting goals. And he historicizes the development of contemporary information wars and ideological confusion by relating these phenomena to developments during and since the late Cold War.
He lends coherence to the sprawling tale by jumping around places and phenomena in an impressionistic style, using his father’s literary and radio biography as a reference point. The father was investigated by the KGB, which led to his family’s exile from the Soviet Union. The son later worked in Russian television for nearly a decade, gaining an insider’s view of Putin’s Russia that turned out to be more broadly relevant than he had initially realized (Pomerantsev, Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible [2014]).
Every fresh gross of Trump’s misdeeds seems to crowd out the gross that was already squatting in my head. When will the nightmare be over?
HOT TIP: We do not need to pollute people’s timelines with screenshots from trolls, ghouls, and other noxious beings.
Brain Worms
The real problem of Twitter today isn’t bots, or even the weirdo billionaire running it, it’s the fact that otherwise credible journalists, pundits and politicos keep treating the platform as a legitimate and useful forum for democratic discourse. It’s not….
The fact that so many politicians and reporters continue to spend their days on Twitter means the general public is now catching second-hand brain worms.
– Justin Ling, Elon Musk’s hellsite isn’t making us fall for Pierre Poilievre. It’s doing something far scarier, Toronto Star, August 15, 2024.
HT @[email protected]
Here is a moderated group in the Fediverse to help make Vice President Kamala Harris the next president of the USA. Kamala Harris for President News & Organizing. The group is on Friendica, but you can join it from anywhere in the Fediverse. HT @[email protected]
Meta’s algorithms are so good that they “think” placing a CPAC ad in front of me on Instagram is a good idea.
Briefly looked at my social media feeds this evening. Bad idea. I can’t take any more 24/7 coverage of the Rotten Orange Ass and his band of sycophantic hangers-on.
My impression is that there is a lot more activity going into third-party tools for Mastodon (and the Fediverse more broadly) than there is for Bluesky. I like the apparent optimism about the ActivityPub protocol.
"Get out of there!"
In a TAZ editorial, Carolina Schwarz observes a recent round of German organizations finally leaving Twitter. She argues that organizations who have been fighting to preserve the space that once was Twitter should give it up. Doing so will render it irrelevant.
I would add that public facing organizations and individuals need to get over their addiction to the misleading follower numbers on xitter (pronounce “x” with an “sh” sound) and learn how to navigate and help shape the open social media spaces in the Fediverse and the Fediverse-adjacent Bluesky. Public and publicly funded organizations in particular have a duty to make their communications accessible on open social platforms, even if they want to maintain a presence in the siloed spaces too.
In fact, I no longer bother following institutions, organizations, and publications not on an open social media platform or offering reliable RSS or JSON feeds. There’s more than enough to learn in this world without relying on wealthy, would-be gatekeepers of content they did not create.
I was just starting to get my social media groove back again, and now the debate, which I didn’t even watch. Anxiety and fear are contagious. Please be mindful of how you share these emotions.🫡
Shared Notes: Website Prehistory
I fleshed out my site’s portfolio page for the scholarly blogs that consumed much of my attention and creative energy from late 2016 to mid 2022. In particular, the section devoted to History of Knowledge grew because that is the site where I had the most latitude for independent initiative.
Importing Instagram Posts to Pixelfed
Are people really shocked about the European Parliamentary election results? Or are the responses more part of the performative virtue that we’ve learned to offer on social media when people do bad things? I’m not saying the results aren’t bad, but they certainly didn’t come out of nowhere.
Wahl 2024
I wanted to blog this in German, without waiting for any proofreading assistance. On Mastodon, I cross-posted it as a thread instead of as a link to this post.
Von Schock und Überraschung nach den gestrigen Wahlergebnissen lese ich auf Mastodon. Wirklich aber? Es gab ja in Deutschland das Ganze mit dem Kampf gegen die nötige Machtausübung des Staates während der schlimmsten Momente der Pandemie. Mangelndes Mitgefühl hat das schon gezeigt, und grosse Vertrauensverlust den Machtausübenden gegenüber. Vielleicht triftiger noch: wir in den USA kennen eine starke Affinität zwischen solchen Ansichten und rechtspopulistischem bzw. rechtsradikalem Gedankengut. Ich meine, daß diesen Zusammenhang öfters in Deutschland auch konstatiert wurde.
Ich denke auch etwa an 2015 und an – anders aber relevant – die schlimmen Angriffe auf ausländische Mitbürger kurz nach der Wende. Neuerdings gab us wieder das instinktive Weiterrücken der CDU/CSU Führung nach rechts, was ja nicht im Vakuum geschieht. Zu guter Letzt gibt es die Rückgratlosigkeit des Bundeskanzlers und einer Großzahl anderer Politiker, die die öffentliche Meinung lieber folgen als lenken zu versuchen. Mich sollte es eher überraschen, daß es Überraschung gibt, aber das kenn ich in den USA auch, wie viel vom vorher Erwähntem auch.
Es gibt zwei berühmten schwarzen Komiker hierzulande, die in einem Sketch nach der Wahl 2016 nur lachen konnten, weil sie sehr wohl wußten, dass der Rassismus weiterhin fluorierte. Wenn man Peacock in den USA hat, ist es wohl leicht zu finden. Sonst fällt mir leider nur YouTube ein.
Microblogging is Social Media, Not Broadcast Media
Max Boot on Threads writes, “I really want Threads to take over from X which is broken. But this is discouraging.” Setting aside the fact that he has 23,000 followers, I typed a hurried response because I just can’t hear it anymore. Why do so many smart, media-savvy people refuse to understand what has happened in the social media space over the past two years? Maybe it’s because they’ve always understood Twitter as just another broadcast medium?
Here is my reply as is, warts and all:
Maybe people accustomed to huge followings need to rethink how they do social media. The days of one platform are gone. A lot of us you will want to reach will never be reachable on twitter. And many of us will not stay on threads if it does not actually federate or stop playing around with its algorithm in such an unhelpful way. Try Bluesky, and try encouraging people to set up algorithms that will discover news. Try setting up such algorithms yourself and spreading the word about them. 1/2
Use tools that let you broadcast to multiple platforms. But also, stop thinking of such media as broadcast media. Go for quality interactions too. Doing so can have its own network effects. Besides, shouldn’t your media organizations be setting up tools too, such as their own Mastodon instances, Bluesky algorithms for your benefit, etc. There will never again be a pre-Musk Twitter. And we need to stop relying on the mega rich to build our tools. 2/2
[I’ve had to remove the links to my own comment because I’ve since deleted my account. –MS, 2/1/25]
The IndieWeb approach is about owning your own content. Making over one’s web presence in such terms might also be about fashioning a whole self in the face of the fracturing that corporate siloes and algorithms incentivize and create. That’s too much to ask of a little blog, I know, but I’m noticing how the IndieWeb perspective is helping me feel better about my online life in the present moment.
Visited Facebook last night for the first time in ages. Very good to see news from old friends, but the algorithm also churns up a lot of random schmalz. And it’s downright needy. Why, at a gathering of friends, should I need FB to drag me around and tell me what and who I should pay attention to? And why does it ask me to evaluate friends' speech along the way? FB is such an intrusive and overbearing host.
I am wondering how Threads can really federate given what Meta is doing with user content and so-called AI. There’s opt-out in Europe and no choice whatsoever in the United States. While both situations are bad, they are becoming known. But what about people on other Fediverse instances who casually interact with a Threads account? I wonder who’s working harder right now to achieve federation, Threads' coders, their legal team, or their spin doctors? The doublespeak, selective listening, and tone-deafness in Adam Mosseri’s posts are sometimes hard to overlook.
A Bridge for the Bluesky–Mastodon Gap
An early version of a bridge between Bluesky and Mastodon is now available. At a Mastodon 🦣 or other Fediverse account, follow the Bridgy Fed bot for Bluesky, @[email protected]. It will follow you back, and—presto, bridge built to Bluesky.
This also works in reverse. Bluesky 🦋 accounts can build a bridge to Mastodon and other Fediverse accounts by following @ap.brid.gy.
I’m not sure how I’ll use this, given that I have an account in both places, but it should make certain kinds of cross-sharing easier. By reposting something on one platform, I’ll have it on the other, where I can repost from my primary account on that platform.
Regardless, Bridgy Fed’s real power probably lies in the access it gives to (potential) readers who favor one platform over the other. Differing preferences are already emerging as people experience platform fatigue. Bridges between places are definitely needed. Thank you, Ryan Barrett, for making this happen.
Revisiting an Old Project
I just noticed that the History of Knowledge’s “About” page has been rewritten to claim that the GHI’s director conceived that project. I would tell the story somewhat differently, but the boss gets to tell the story the way she wants.1 Besides, this version reinforces my impression that my co-editor and I did something good because this boss would never claim ownership of a dud.
In fact, the site is still thriving, and, remarkably, it’s chugging along with the same old Penscratch theme from WordPress’s pre–block theme era. In an academic culture focused on making the new, while ignoring the need to maintain what has already been built, this is also a win of sorts. And I rest easier knowing that the site is being regularly archived by the Wayback Machine. Regardless of a director’s priorities and the institute’s funding, this thing will continue to exist for quite a while.
I just wish the current team had a more modern understanding of social media. Staying on Twitter after 2022 has meant relegating any conversation with readers and contributors to a now siloed platform that countless scholars and concerned citizens have abandoned. Of course, this criticism presupposes a desire for conversation. I suspect, though, that social media is purely a broadcast medium for the current team, as it is for many organizations. After all, engagement takes time, which means financial and opportunity costs.
Bringing Back a Blogroll
It’s been a long time since I maintained a blogroll, but the poisoning of Twitter makes me think it’s a good idea. I do not want my network to be owned by a random billionaire whose interests are at odds with community building and maintenance. I’ve been slowly (re)connecting with people on other microblogging platforms, but it’s time to begin making my own site social as well. That’s why the blogroll is back.
A couple first impressions: I’m noticing fewer blogs among people I’m following on Mastodon than I would have expected on Twitter some fifteen years ago, when microblogging was not yet so ubiquitous. There are plenty of websites as CVs and marketing tools (for books and speaking engagements), but not as many blogs per se. On the other hand, there is a ton of microblogging going on. It’s possible that some of these accounts should find their way onto my blogroll—perhaps more personal blogs too. But baby steps.
For now, I want to curate a list that reflects the interests on display in my own blogging. This approach will not necessarily create social connections with those I list, but it should manifest socially contingent knowledge about other blogs that some readers might find useful. In other words, I’m trying to offer some social or human-driven discovery as opposed to the stuff that algorithmically driven search engines and social media deliver.