Social media

I refuse to use facebook, as I am so concerned about their egregious intrusiveness right from when I first considered signing up many years ago, and all the problems since then over privacy & ethics have confirmed to me that I made the right decision. I also avoid anything they own for the same sort of reasons.

There is a professionally focused social media platform that I’m on because it is an unwritten expectation - and, frankly, I’ve found little benefit from that. It does enable some networking, but the main benefit seems to be for headhunter who want me to use my networks to feed them potential candidates for job vacancies - which I do sometimes, if one of my former colleagues is looking for work and I consider the job could be good for them (I’m less interested in the headhunter’s interests/benefits). 

I undoubtedly would get more from that platform if I spent more time on it - I have colleagues at work who find it quite useful, but I don’t have the time, energy, or interest, and I’ve now got a note up letting people know I am planning on taking “early” retirement from engineering next year: that might slow the headhunters, but I may also wind up my account at that time - or, at the very least, I’ll remove the networking connections, and just keep the genuine friends (and I might venture more into the non-engineering areas). 

That is a useful segue into Twitter. 

I’ve only been on that for a few years, and I think I originally wanted somewhere that I could just post “what's happening in my life” sort of stuff ... but, pretty inevitably (for me), that would up morphing into a political / human rights arena. 

And that’s where the limited time I spend on social media becomes a problem. 

At any point in time, there will be areas of the worlds oceans that are too tumultuous for safe use, areas that are too calm for effective use (I am a sailor, so wind is vital for my use of the sea/ocean), and areas that are in the “just right or near enough” bracket, and one’s passage will hit/miss those depending the course and course changes of self and storm. 

That classification also applies to life - some parts are too tumultuous, some are too calm and stupefying, and some are in the “just right or near enough” bracket, and one’s passage will hit/miss those depending the course and course changes of self and storm. 

That also applies to Twitter: some places and times are too tumultuous, some are too dull and boring (probably - I haven’t come across that myself), and some are in the “just right or near enough” bracket, and one’s passage will hit/miss those depending the course and course changes of self and storm. 

I’ve just found that I missed a whole place and time of activity (a storm) that I could possibly have helped in - yes, I was recovering from COVID, but this has happened at other times as well. 

So ... I have: 

• changed my blurb to state that I am only there a few times a week (originally it was once a day, but I haven't had time for that for months, maybes a couple of years); 
• cut down the number of people I follow to reduce the areas of the Twitter-sphere that I access, so I can concentrate better on it and maybe find the storms when they happen in the areas I am interested in; and 
• seriously considered whether I stop using Twitter. In the end of decided I’d keep it going, in case I have more time, if I retire, to have a more effective presence - meaning I’ve just got a sort of “holding” presence for now.
  

The other key issue I need to work on is how to respond to some of the dinosaurs on there - when I found the sort of comments being made, I was appalled into a stunned mullet condition - the level of vitriol, viciousness, and, frankly, immaturity shown by people coming across difference is staggering. 

I need to do some mental preparation for those. 

I am also using the messaging function on Twitter to support people, and thus whatever I do respond with, I need to make sure I don’t put that at risk, but I need to work out what to do about this sort of evil. 

Ocean passage making; life; social media - the complexities of each and all, eh?

PS - I have now come across Mastodon, which may be worth considering.