A year ago, I posted a challenge:<\/p>\n
For Six Months, Let’s Force Civilization on Facebook<\/a>. <\/p>\n In that blog, I made this pledge:<\/p>\n For the next six months, I will work to increase the amount of positive and\/or real, first-person content on Facebook, in order to disempower the negative elements on the platform. I will not be less politically active or avoid posts about things I am angry about, but I will counter that with content that\u2019s uplifting to both myself and my friends and colleagues. For the next six months, I will help make the platform of value to ME, personally, regardless of what its owners and \u201csponsored content\u201d might do.<\/i><\/p>\n And then I made a long list of what I was going to do to live that pledge online. <\/p>\n It’s now a year later, and it turns out that I didn’t just do it for six months. I did it for a year. <\/p>\n And it worked: the ads I get aren’t horrible anymore. I even bought something that targeted me (one of Stefan’s Christmas presents<\/a>). <\/p>\n So I’m going to keep doing it. <\/p>\n Sadly, the same strategy won’t work on Twitter. I miss Twitter so much. Hugely. I miss my Twitter friends SO much. I miss Cher<\/a>. But any time I need to remind myself why I paused my activities there, I go read the fascist-adjacent, pro-Putin, pro-extremist tweets of Elon Musk and I stay off. Not deleting my Twitter account though, because that means someone else could come along and use my name. I still have to be on my professional account. <\/p>\n I sure wish someone would create a real alternative to Twitter and Facebook. <\/p>\n