Tag: social-media
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Blogging is alive and well
Oh man am I happy! People that hadn’t written on their blog in a long time are blogging again. Websites that hadn’t been updated in many years, some over a decade, are being spruced up and published to again. And popular news outlets are publishing articles about blogging. Of course, those of us that have…
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Recent Mastodon vibes
There is a lot being written about Mastodon lately. And it isn’t just being published on Mastodon. Both Time and Wired have published about Mastodon and its creator within the last week. I wanted to post my current thoughts about the platform to capture the moment. Things are changing rapidly. A lot of things are…
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Brent Stitcher on owning your audience
Brent Sticher, who writes a lot about my favorite programming language PHP (don’t @ me), writes about the history of his personal blog and Twitter account and how he now owns his audience. The entire post is worth a quick read. I wanted to back him on on this bit: I’ve managed to build a…
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How I track social media profile clicks
Would you like to know how many people found your blog from Mastodon? How about how many people find your YouTube channel via TikTok? Back in my day, when someone clicked on a link from one website to another, the destination site could easily tell where the traffic was coming from. It was called the…
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My social media bacta tank is working
For context, you may want to read my post from early January I am quitting social media. There were two main actions I took when I decided to pull the plug on social media. First, I unsubscribed from all accounts in every platform. RSS feeds deleted. Twitter follows razed. Instagram follows flushed. YouTube subscriptions obliterated.…
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P. I. Moore on quitting social media
P. I. Moore in continuance of my quitting social media post writes: This couldn’t resonate with me more. Through having my own plans and ambitions going forward to better both myself and my writing, the strive to regain control of what I let into my own mind—and draw from my focus—will be under vast scrutiny.
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I am quitting social media
Mostly. And, for a year. Or more. What started out as a routine flushing of my social media accounts, something I’ve done on more than one occasion in the past, has now turned into a strong desire to leave social media behind for good. And so I’m doing just that. My main reasons for waiting…
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Unfollowing everyone and everything, again
Me, in 2015: As many of you reading this likely know, I do this all the time. Probably once every two or three months. I delete everything on Twitter and Feedly and start new. It has led me to finding more and more great people, places, and things than just about anything else I’ve done online.…
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Twitter’s project Bluesky seems stuck in the mud
Yesterday I randomly wondered what the status of Twitter’s Bluesky project was – a project that promises to create a protocol for federating the microblogging platform in the same way that SMTP/IMAP does for email. So I poked around. The Twitter account seems all but dormant. So then I logged into their Discord guild (Discord…
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How I turned off social media apps on my iPhone
Last week we took a road trip for a few days away for our anniversary. During that time I wanted to disconnect from social media, news, etc. as much as possible. My goal was to stop my muscle memory from opening the apps I tend to open every single day. I found an iOS setting…
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Bluesky
Bluesky: We’re focusing on re-building the social web by connecting disconnected silos and returning control of the social experience to users. Our mission is to develop and drive the adoption of technologies for open and decentralized public conversation. A Twitter-backed organization to decentralize social media. It has been a slow start but the group had…
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WSJ investigates TikTok’s algorithm
WSJ: The Wall Street Journal created dozens of automated accounts that watched hundreds of thousands of videos to reveal how the social network knows you so well All popular social media platforms are willing to do everything they possibly can to exploit people’s deepest feelings. Facebook is likely the worst actor insomuch as they are…
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Repost: Lucy Bellwood
👉 Lucy Bellwood: Just a Shower Thought Addendum: I know we feel compelled to check in on people when they haven’t posted on social media in a while—as if that’s the best external marker of mental health—but what if being absent from social media was the healthy norm and anyone posting a great deal got showered with…
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Craig Mod on using social networks for their strengths
Craig Mod, in a footnote of the post announcing his newsletter Huh: So my general philosophy of these social networks is to lean into what they do well — a bit of distribution, a bit of playfulness — and don’t kill yourself trying to make them do things for which they aren’t designed. I am angry…
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Snap introduces Spotlight inside of Snapchat
Snap: Submit your best video Snaps to Spotlight for the opportunity to earn a share of more than $1 million that we’re distributing to creators every day! Go big or go home I guess. Snap puts a TikTok-like feed right inside of Snapchat and is giving away a million dollars per day to ensure they…
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We need to disincentivize dangerous photo ops
Dangerous photo ops are all the rage on social media. Countless stories over the last decade or so have hit the news about someone trying to get a selfie on a rock ledge, on the balcony of cruise ship at sea, or hanging one-handed from an under construction skyscraper hundreds of feet in the air…
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Gabz on Instagram
Luis Gabriel Santiago Alvarado, aka Gabz: The main reason I keep Instagram is the same reason most people won’t quit Facebook, I have friends and family I want to stay in contact with. Somehow Instagram seems to be the less Facebooky way of doing it, or at least in my head it is. I feel…
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Taking another social media break
Jake Dahn: In many ways it feels like the more “information” I consume, the more burnt out I become. And: Ideas feel different, though. When I consume a new idea, I fall into a natural optimism where I can’t help but be motivated to remix the idea into something new. Please read his entire post…
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Ryan Barrett switched to Twitter Lists
Ryan Barrett: A few days ago, I unfollowed everyone on Twitter, added them all to a list, and I now read that list instead. It’s shockingly better. Only their own tweets and retweets, in order. No ads, no “liked by,” no “people you may know,” no engagement hacking crap. It’s glorious. I do not believe…
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Twitter Lists are having a moment
Twitter recently released an updated UI that allows you to “pin” Lists you’ve created to your Home timeline view. This makes it possible to swipe between each List quickly. It is a nice feature – especially for those with only a few lists or for those just starting out with them*. Since this update was…
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Hiking in March 2018 (audio)
Recorded March 11, 2018. A photo I took while hiking this same day. A little over a year ago I went for a short hike in the snow just after returning from a trip to Kentucky and just before starting my job at Jujama. Side note: I record tons of these audio bits that I…
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Twitter fixes their timeline
YES!!!!!! The Verge: Twitter has made a surprise change to how it shows tweets to its users, following a viral thread earlier today that discussed ways to reverse the platform’s algorithmic timeline. Now, when you uncheck the settings box reading “Show the best tweets first,” Twitter will completely revert your timeline to a non-algorithmic, reverse-chronological…
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Manton Reece on smaller social networks
Manton Reece: Many people are looking for “the next Twitter”, but it’s not enough to replace Twitter with a new platform and new leadership. Some problems are inevitable when power is concentrated in only 2-3 huge social networks — ad-based businesses at odds with user needs and an overwhelming curation challenge. This might be Mastodon’s…
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Leo Laporte leaves Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Facebook
Leo Laporte: Yesterday I deactivated my Twitter account and kicked Tumblr to the curb. A couple of weeks ago I did the same with Instagram. A month or so before that I killed Facebook. And I survived. No, thrived! I had deleted my Twitter account in the past and lived. And while I haven’t deleted…
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Colin Walker takes a break (so I will too)
Colin Walker: I’m not going to be blogging much – maybe the occasional post but nothing regular. I’m going to remove my feed from micro.blog for the time being so that I’m not drawn into conversations there that might result from any posts – if any conversations occur they will have to happen locally, for…
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What I would write about Vero
Colin Walker wrote his hot take on Vero and it is exactly what I would have written (only his post is far more eloquent than mine would have been). Go read the entire post but here are a few highlights. As soon as I saw what Vero was all about – the idea it “makes…
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Socialocca presents a Social Media Workshop at the February 2018 NEPA Tech meet up
This month’s NEPA Tech meet up was yet another smashing success. If you live in northeastern Pennsylvania and are interested in the intersections of business, technology, the arts, etc. (and you want to see our area thrive in all of these things) please consider attending an upcoming event. Ryan K. Hertel of Socialocca, a small…
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Jack Baty on follower counts
Jack Baty: Years ago on Twitter, I would use follower counts as an indicator of authority or perhaps as a way to gauge someone’s impact on a community or topic. With so many followers, he or she must have useful or interesting things to say, right? That probably wasn’t a great way to think about…
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Snapthread 1.5 Beta
Becky Hansmeyer: I’m going to do something I’ve never done before: ask people to beta test my app! If you’re interested in being a part of my very first beta test, please either send an email to feedback@beckyhansmeyer.com or DM me on Twitter (@bhansmeyer). All I need to know is what email address you’d like me to…
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Repost: Nitin Khanna re: Instagram hashtags
👉 Nitin Khanna: I am LOVING Instagram’s new hashtag follow feature! It makes perfect sense and makes my feed that much more interesting! Now if only other social networks understood this simple idea.
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Threads now officially supported on Twitter
Sasank Reddy, on the Twitter blog: Now, hundreds of thousands of threads are Tweeted every day! But this method of Tweeting, while effective and popular, can be tricky for some to create and it’s often tough to read or discover all the Tweets in a thread. That’s why we’re thrilled to share that we’re making…
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Follow Hashtags on Instagram
Instagram: Today we’re introducing the ability to follow hashtags, giving you new ways to discover photos, videos and people on Instagram. Now it’s even easier to stay connected with the interests, hobbies, passions and communities you care about. This is an excellent feature. I won’t even go into all the ways Twitter should have been…
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What comes after Instagram?
Victoria Wright on Twitter: Photo friends// are you regularly sharing your work somewhere other than on @instagram? I’m so over them deciding what I see and don’t see The thread is interesting. Most photogs point to VSCO. I think Instagram still has a long runway ahead of it. And I still think it is very,…
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Regram
Matt Navarra for The Next Web: Instagram appears to be finally working on a native Regram button. It’s a feature many users have been waiting for for some time. Currently, users wanting to reshare content have to either save the image or video to their device and re-share it from their own account, or call…
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Doug Lane on Microblogging tone
Doug Lane, on thinking a bit more before publishing on his own site than he would on Twitter or Facebook: If I let moments of anger or frustration sit for a bit, one of two things will happen. Most likely, I’ll move on to something more meaningful without shoving valueless negativity in anyone else’s face.…
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Colin Walker \”be careful what you wish for\”
Colin Walker: I spent years blogging about social media, trying to think about ways to drive mainstream adoption. When we reached the tipping point I had to ask "what now?" but still managed to find things to write about for a while. But, for the last several years, I have become increasingly disenchanted with social…
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Colin Walker \”be careful what you wish for\”
Colin Walker: I spent years blogging about social media, trying to think about ways to drive mainstream adoption. When we reached the tipping point I had to ask "what now?" but still managed to find things to write about for a while. But, for the last several years, I have become increasingly disenchanted with social…
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Colin Walker \”be careful what you wish for\”
Colin Walker: I spent years blogging about social media, trying to think about ways to drive mainstream adoption. When we reached the tipping point I had to ask "what now?" but still managed to find things to write about for a while. But, for the last several years, I have become increasingly disenchanted with social…
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Colin Walker \”be careful what you wish for\”
Colin Walker: I spent years blogging about social media, trying to think about ways to drive mainstream adoption. When we reached the tipping point I had to ask "what now?" but still managed to find things to write about for a while. But, for the last several years, I have become increasingly disenchanted with social…
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Colin Walker \”be careful what you wish for\”
Colin Walker: I spent years blogging about social media, trying to think about ways to drive mainstream adoption. When we reached the tipping point I had to ask "what now?" but still managed to find things to write about for a while. But, for the last several years, I have become increasingly disenchanted with social…
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Colin Walker \”be careful what you wish for\”
Colin Walker: I spent years blogging about social media, trying to think about ways to drive mainstream adoption. When we reached the tipping point I had to ask "what now?" but still managed to find things to write about for a while. But, for the last several years, I have become increasingly disenchanted with social…
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Colin Walker \”be careful what you wish for\”
Colin Walker: I spent years blogging about social media, trying to think about ways to drive mainstream adoption. When we reached the tipping point I had to ask "what now?" but still managed to find things to write about for a while. But, for the last several years, I have become increasingly disenchanted with social…
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Independent interviews Mike Krieger of Instagram
Adrian Weckler interviewed Mike Krieger, co-founder of Instagram, for Independent.ie out of Dublin. Regarding longer form video Krieger replies: What we have right now is a minute. If we introduce longer video, we have to make it fit into the flow of Instagram in a way that makes sense. I think what might point the…
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Speaking at the 2017 tecBRIDGE Entreprenuerial Institute
Photo credit: Mandy Pennington on Twitter. On Friday I had the privilege to host two sessions at the 2017 tecBRIDGE Entrepreneurial Institute Conference at Marywood University. The event was very well attended (I’d say nearly 200 people, but I don’t know for sure). The speakers and panels were engaging, interesting, and the number of people…
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Yours.org – A social network that costs money to post
Ryan X. Charles: Most people told us it would never work, but we did it anyway: We started charging 10¢ to post content on our social network. Our users didn’t leave. In fact, they are posting more than ever, and the quality of content has improved. Our experiment seems to be working. People are willing…
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Nicotine and Heroin
Roger McNamee, very early investor in both Google and Facebook (and, though he’s profited, he regrets it): The people at Facebook and Google believe that giving consumers more of what they want and like is worthy of praise, not criticism. What they fail to recognize is that their products are not making consumers happier or…
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Snapchat is a party, LinkedIn is a business lunch
Colin Walker, like me, struggles with what should be syndicated to networks and what should be brought back into the blog context. He makes this specific point about replies: Social replies like on Twitter or Facebook don’t, in my opinion, need to be owned – they belong in the context of the social network and…
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Twan van Elk on social media
Twan van Elk: Everytime I open up my feed reader and read about people’s lives, thoughts, work, observations, what they ate, that beautiful flower they saw, I ask myself: why do I enjoy this so much more than any social media timeline I’ve ever been on? Because blog posts feel more permanent than social media…
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Speaking to the Social Media Gurus class at Misericordia University
Me, doing my best Neil deGrasse Tyson. Photo credit: Richard Baldovin/Misericordia University. In early April I had the privilege of speaking to the Social Media Gurus class (or COM 485) at Misericordia University. My friend Dan Kimbrough is the Assistant Professor of Communications in the Mass Communication and Design Department at the university and he…
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Twan van Elk quits social media
Twan van Elk, in response to my recent post: This week I am deactivating several social media accounts and focusing more on my blogging. He followed through too. I loved this bit after only a few days away from social media: That is also something that has changed: I now write for me. Sorry people,…