Category Archives: Social Networking

Some thoughts and how-tos about all kinds of social networking services.

The Joys of Social Media

Posted on by
4

My ever-changing take on social networking.

I’ve been thinking a lot about socialization these days and I thought I’d say a few things about how I stay in touch with friends (and strangers) while living a relatively solitary life.

Twitter and Mastodon (and Facebook)

I’ve been on Twitter since April 2007 and have tweeted more than 147,000 times. (I have a lot to say.) I’ve always liked Twitter since it filled a gap in my working life. In the years when I worked from home writing computer how-to books and articles and video training materials, I had no social interaction with co-workers. Twitter became my “water cooler” — the place I’d go when I needed a short break from work and some interaction with other people.


I don’t tolerate bullshit. I block all trolls and assholes and mute all advertisers.

Twitter changed over the years, of course. It was weaponized by political parties and states through the use of misinformation, bots, and trolls. I kept ahead of most of this by simply blocking the accounts I didn’t want to see. I’d also mute accounts that promoted their tweets. And I curated my timeline by being very careful who I followed and unfollowing people who tweeted or retweeted a lot of crap. Still, doomscrollling became a thing, even in my carefully curated timeline.

Of course, in recent days, after the takeover by Elon Musk, Space Karen, Twitter has pretty much gone to hell. It started with the new policy that allowed users to buy a Verified tag for their account and the rampant impersonation of real people and companies. Some are funny, some aren’t. One impersonation cost Eli Lilly (and Twitter) millions of dollars. Then there was the return of hate speech, in force, starting with rampant anti-semitism. That was only made worse with the reactivation of the previously suspended accounts for Donald Trump and Kanye West. Thanks to the loss of more than 75% of its staff, Twitter has become somewhat unreliable and there’s virtually no moderation of content.

Basically, Twitter is flushing itself down the toilet and there’s not much anyone can do about it.

Like a few other folks I know on Twitter, I opened an account on Mastodon (@mlanger@mastodon.world), which is a Twitter-like service made possible by decentralized networked servers. It’s a lot like Twitter was in the early days, but because it’s a bit funky to set up, it’s naturally weeding out the social media idiots most of us don’t want to see anyway. I’ve decided to build my Mastodon experience to be a politics-free, hate-free, anger-free world and I’m doing that by simply not following accounts that toot (instead of tweet) politics, hate, or anger. I’m filtering out posts with topics that I don’t want to see or don’t interest me. I’m muting accounts that post primarily politics. I’m basically building a social networking bubble.

Now before you get all critical about that, try to see it my way. I don’t go on social media to get the news or to learn what’s going on in the world. I listen to NPR and have a subscription to the Washington Post. That’s where I get my news. I have no interest in the stories put out by MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, Mother Jones, or just about any other media outlet so why would I want to read social media tweets that link to them?

What am I on social media for? Well, I mentioned it right at the top of this post: social interaction with other people.

Here’s how I see it: I live alone and don’t go out to a job like most people. My daily social interaction is minimal. In addition to meeting up with friends and neighbors at occasional social gatherings, I’m pretty much limited to text and phone conversations with friends and brief messages on Twitter and Mastodon.

(Don’t talk to me about Facebook. That site will rot your mind — it’s a cesspool of hate and lies. And don’t give me the excuse that it’s the only way to keep up with family and friends. These people don’t have phones and email addresses? The only way you can communicate with them is in a toxic environment where you won’t even see their posts unless the algorithm shows you? The only thing Facebook is good for is finding out how stupid/bigoted/gullible your friends and family really are.)

Now that I’m on Mastodon and building a whole new social media world from scratch, I’m really enjoying meeting people with similar interests — especially those that aren’t trying to sell a product or idea. It really is just like the old days on Twitter. You’d meet someone and hit it off and interact, chatting about things going on in your lives. You’d build friendships. Heck, I’ve met in person at least a dozen of the people I’ve met on Twitter, including the first person I ever followed there, who lives in the UK.

Nebo and the Boating Forums

Now that I’m seriously into boating — as I once was seriously into aviation — I’m making friends in the boating world. There are two main tools I’m using to do that.

Nebo is a boating app that lets you share your boat’s location with others. The idea is that you can keep track of where your boating friends are, show them where you are, and possibly meet other boaters in your area. I used it on my other two boat trips to share each day’s cruise with friends and blog readers. But now that I’m cruising at my own pace and meeting folks along the way, I’m using it to keep track of where they are.

Nebo has a built-in chat feature to get in touch with boaters you find on the app. (There are privacy settings to keep your boat invisible or your information invisible to strangers, in case you’re wondering.) As I prepare to return to my boat very late in the season, I’m trying to connect with other boaters in my area. I’ve successfully chatted with a few, including one couple that has done the Great Loop 33 times.

Because I’m not using Nebo every day (since I’m not currently on the water), I’ve pretty much switched over to texting for my closest boating friends. But I still use Nebo to see where they are. (I can’t wait to get back to them.) And if you’re interested in seeing where my boat is, you can find it here.


I can see that this morning both Pony and Nine Lives are at the Columbus Marina with a bunch of other Loopers on Nebo. La Principessa is heading south on the Tennessee River a bit farther north. I’ll likely catch up with them before we hit the Gulf.

Other sources of social interaction with fellow boaters are the two boating forums I follow:

  • TugNuts is the Ranger Tug/Cutwater boats support forum. It’s a great place to share information about our boats. I scan the new messages every morning and participate in conversations where I have something to add. I also use it to get information when I have a question or problem. For example, I was having a heck of a time getting engine computer data to interface with my chart plotters. I posted about my problem and had two good answers within 24 hours.

  • MTOA is the Marine Trawler Owners Association. Like TugNuts, it’s a great source of information for boaters, but it’s not boat specific. I use it to get more general information about cruising, especially about places to cruise. A list of new posts comes to me in email every morning and I use that to pick out the discussions I might want to see and participate in.

Both of these forums require membership. MTOA requires an annual membership fee. Both forums have resulted in members contacting me directly via e-mail — I allow them to do so — about topics I’ve participated in. I’ve gotten a lot of excellent information and offers for meet ups with other boaters. It’s nice. (And yes, I know I did gripe about some of the old guys in these forums, but they are the exception and not the rule.)

My Point

I guess my point is this: Social networking doesn’t need to be an addictive anger- or hate -inducing doomscrolling mechanism. It can be pleasant and informative. It can be a way to meet people with similar interests and keep in touch with them.

It can be what you want it to be — if you focus on what you do and don’t want to see and take steps to get the content you really want.

—

Featured image by Image by Freepik.

Three Social Media Tips in the Time of Coronavirus

Posted on by
2

Dial it down, for your sanity and the sanity of others.

Okay, I get it. You’re stuck mostly at home, possibly with a spouse and/or kids. Your routine has been upended and you have gaps in your day that you need to fill with something. So maybe you’re checking in on social media a little more than usual. Seeing what’s new with friends on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or some other social networking platform I’m either too old or too young to be connected with.

I’m with you. Although my “routine” hasn’t changed much, as I discussed in my previous post, I have definitely been checking in on Twitter a lot more than usual. (I pretty much dumped Facebook about three years ago, although you will still find a half-dead account there for me.) And based on the increased number of new tweets coming in every minute or so, I have to assume that many of the folks I follow there have also ramped up their access. I suspect it’s the same on all social media platforms. You’re bored, you’re lonely, you’re stressed, you’re starved for information — for whatever reason, you’re online more, reading more posts, and sharing the posts you want everyone in the world to see.

Whoa. Take a step back and look hard about how it’s making you feel. That’s what I did about a week ago. I realized that all coronavirus/COVID-19 and all finger-pointing politics all the time was making me depressed and angry. And that’s not what I use social media for.

That said, I’d like to offer three tips for social media during the time of coronavirus.

General Tips for Keeping Your Sanity on Twitter

On March 4, I posted a Twitter thread with some advice for folks who were getting frustrated by the anger and hate being shared on Twitter. Here it is in its entirety; tweet by tweet:

As someone who has been on Twitter for nearly 13 years and has authored numerous training materials/articles about it, can I share some advice for folks frustrated by the anger and hate being shared here? (1/13)

First of all, don’t feed the trolls. If someone replies to you or someone else with nasty, hateful comments, do one of the following (1) ignore them, (2) mute them so you don’t need to see any more of their crap, … (2/13)

… or (3) block them so you don’t have to worry about them seeing/interacting with your tweets. I usually block because life’s too short to deal with assholes. (3/13)

If someone on Twitter is spewing hate against a group of people or otherwise violating the Twitter Terms of Service (TOS), report them and (optionally but recommended) block them. I consider it my duty to report these accounts. (4/13)

If you think an account is fake — remember, we’ve been warned that foreign actors are screwing with US elections — report and block it. It’s quick and easy. (5/13)

Don’t make things worse by trolling people you don’t agree with using nasty or offensive comments. Remember what they say about honey vs vinegar. (Google it.) 6/13)

Don’t believe ANYTHING you read on Twitter unless it’s from a reputable source or you’ve read it elsewhere on an independent reputable source. Related: anyone can cook up a chart or graph or “poll results” to fool you. Ditto for photos these days. (7/13)

Related: just because you agree with something and WANT it to be true doesn’t mean it IS true. (8/13)

Don’t share information you have any reason to believe might not be true. (See above.) There’s enough bad information out there — don’t add to it! (9/13)

Follow folks who tweet about the things that interest you most. If you’re sick of politics, unfollow folks who tweet/retweet political things. You can always follow them again later. And don’t be offended if people unfollow you. (10/13)

Understand that I’m not telling you to close your mind to other ideas. I’m telling you to keep things civil in your discourse, share (and believe) factual things, and be aware that foreign operators are actively trying to disrupt our elections. Don’t let them suck you in! (11/13)

And finally, remember that Twitter is what you make it. Follow only the accounts that really interest you and stick to viewing “latest tweets” instead of “top tweets” to ensure that YOU are the one curating your Twitter feed. Block the bad actors. (12/13)

Social media is not real life. Remember that, whether you’re on Twitter, Facebook, or any other platform. When it stresses you out, take a break.

See you online. (13/13)

1. Curate your newsfeed.

On Twitter, if you have settings adjusted just right, you should see only three kinds of tweets:

  • Tweets posted by the accounts you follow. You have absolute control over this. If you don’t like what someone tweets, don’t follow them.
  • Tweets retweeted by the accounts you follow. You have some control over this, too. If you don’t like what someone retweets, you can turn off retweets for that account. If there’s one particular account that a Twitter friend retweets that you really don’t want to see, you can mute that account.
  • Ads. Unfortunately, you don’t have much control over that. (But cut Twitter some slack since they really do need to make money somehow.)

This is Twitter. Facebook is a whole different animal, one I’m very glad that I no longer deal with. But you do have some control on Facebook, too. Unfriend people or simply don’t include their posts in your newsfeed. Ditto for Instagram and others.

On Twitter, you can further curate your newsfeed by muting tweets that contain certain words, phrases, or hashtags. This comes in really handy if you don’t want to see any tweets about, say, #COVID19 or #coronavirus.

(For instructions on doing any of these things, consult the Help feature of the social media platform you’re dealing with. Don’t ask me. I don’t do technical support anymore.)

Last week, I started unfollowing a lot of Twitter accounts that post primarily about politics and/or coronavirus. I didn’t mute any terms; I just stopped following accounts that were posting stuff that was making me stressed or angry. This includes highly respected journalists and politicians who I can count on to provide accurate information. The trouble is, I was sick of reading about the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis. (Widely shared opinion, backed up by facts: The Trump administration fucked up and continues to do so in a variety of new and anger-inducing ways. I get it already.) I also stopped following accounts that were posting content from unreliable sources, much of it written to stoke emotions or mislead. (See sidebar.)

But yeah: I stopped following accounts which, in many cases, were following me. Sorry folks, but I’m on Twitter for me, not you, and I’ve already voiced my opinions on the popularity contest.

The ones I didn’t want to stop following — most of them real friends who I know personally — were closely examined for what they retweeted. If I found that they kept retweeting the same political pundit over an over, I simply muted that pundit’s account. This way, when they retweeted without comment, I wouldn’t even see the tweet.

I also started following other accounts that tweeted more upbeat content, much of which has nothing to do with these difficult times. I’ve embraced Twitter’s pilot community and even attended a video conference virtual fly-in with pilots from the US, Canada, and UK. And who doesn’t love pictures of baby goats?

The result: my Twitter feed is a much less stressful place.

2. Don’t share crap.

Ah, crap. It’s the word I apply to any content that is obvious click-bait (see sidebar), is written to generate a (usually negative) emotional response, and/or contains fallacies or half-truths that mislead. Basically anything from the far left or far right news media is probably crap, although I can’t limit it to those sources.

When you share these things, you spread the crap around. Think about that literally for a moment: having some sort of shovel or spatula and using it to spread crap where it’s under everyone’s nose. Do you really want to do that?

How can you tell if something is crap? You can’t always. I usually refer people to the Media Bias Chart, which displays the logos of media outlets on a chart to indicate overall reliability and political bias. Basically, if you’re getting your information from one of the sources in the green box, it shouldn’t be crap. Although that chart is updated often and you can view it online, you have to pay to download it. Here’s a taste of version 5.1; I urge you to follow the link to see the full chart and use it to evaluate your favorite sources:

Media Bias Chart Green Box
Here’s a tiny piece of the Media Bias Chart v5.1. If your favorite news source isn’t in the green box, you’re probably not getting real news.

For the record, I get my news from NPR, the Washington Post, BBC News, and the Guardian (which doesn’t appear to be listed). I occasionally read the New York Times, but they piss me off more often then not.

3. Share upbeat or useful stuff.

What has truly amazed me is the quantity of (usually) non-political content that’s poking fun at our dire situation in a way that makes it palatable. Yeah, life sucks right now and it’s likely to get worse here in the US before it gets any better. And with the economic ramifications, we’re likely to be feeling it for a long time to come. But hey! We’re all in the same boat! Let’s look on the bright side of things.

Many of my Twitter friends have been tweeting or retweeting videos that make me laugh — or at least smile. They show off the creativity and resourcefulness of strangers in the world around us. There’s no hate, no anger. There’s just fun. That’s the kind of stuff you should be sharing with your social media friends. Don’t share hate, anger, frustration, and finger pointing. Share entertaining or enlightening content that makes people happy.

You might also consider sharing useful information. I ran across a video last week that explained how to create masks that could be used (and reused) by local hospitals. Guess what? They can also be used by you when you go out and do your grocery shopping. If you have a sewing machine and some fabric and elastic, you can whip up a mask — or enough for your family — in no time. And if your local hospital has a mask shortage, contact them and see if you can make masks for them, too.

Similarly, I’ve also seen posts about food storage and recipes. New family games. Home schooling. Video conferencing. Working from home. Staying in touch with family or friends. Keeping your sanity. That’s the kind of content we should be sharing now. The kind of content that can improve our world and, possibly, bring people together.

We’re all in the same boat. Why would you want to poke holes in it with divisive or hateful content?

Above All, Remain Calm and Carry On

Lily and Rosie
Rosie (top) and Lily lounging on my bed. They’re calm; you should be, too.

The situation sucks — you don’t have to tell me. It’ll get worse here — that’s a given. But we can get through this together. Do your part and I’ll do mine.

Now enjoy this photo of my two puppies and relax.

Why I Blocked You on Twitter

Posted on by
6

The answer to a question I received by email.

The other day, I got the following email message through the message form on this blog:

Just curious. Why did you block me on Twitter? @[redacted]

Was interested in following your flight home with the new bird.

I honestly don’t remember blocking this specific person. I probably block about a dozen people a week.

Twitter LogoThe reason I usually block people is because of their unreasonably voiced political views. You know the kind of folks I mean: the ones who watch Fox News and echo the bullshit they’ve been fed there. The ones with #MAGA in their Twitter profiles. The ones who share obnoxious memes that bash Obama or Clinton or liberals in general.

Yes, I’ll admit it: I block Trump supporters who attempt to interact with me on Twitter. I honestly have no time or patience for their bullshit. I am a New Yorker at heart and, like most New Yorkers with a brain, I know that Donald Trump is a conman. During the 2016 presidential election, he conned the same kind of people he conned into signing up for Trump University: the desperate and the gullible. I am neither and no one will ever get me to support him.

And frankly, I’m offended by the kinds of things his supporters do and say to attack the people who don’t support him.

Twitter is a haven for these people. They make a game out of preying on people who don’t agree with them, using personal attacks and ridicule, often getting other Trump supporters to join them. They try to make a living hell for the people they find on Twitter who dare to question their glorious leader. It’s fortunate that Twitter makes it easy to prevent these people from targeting us — that’s what the Block feature is for and I’m not afraid to use it.

So there’s a good chance that’s why I blocked the person who emailed me last week. I was simply heading off what I thought might be a Trump supporter following me to see Tweets he could attack. It’s happened before and it’ll happen again.

If I erred and he really was interested in following my trip, he would have been disappointed anyway. I didn’t tweet much along the way. And a blog post about it will be posted here shortly; he can always read that to catch up.

And if that’s truly all he wanted from me, I do apologize. But if he’d been on the receiving end of as many Trump supporter attacks as I have on Twitter, I think he’d understand.

Another (Brief) Facebook Rant

Posted on by
6

This might be enough to get me to completely pull the plug.

I’ll admit it: the only reason I haven’t completely pulled the plug on my Facebook account is because I use it to promote two businesses: Flying M Air and ML Jewelry Designs.

Flying M Air has been on my Facebook account for years. For a while, I tried hard to use Facebook to share information about what the company is doing through events, offers, galleries, and plain old posts. I was checking in daily to stay on top of messages. Flying M Air’s website has an annoying pop-up window that invites visitors to like us on Facebook. (I’m still trying to figure out how to turn that off.) The only thing I didn’t do was pay money to promote a Facebook post.

And here’s the rub. Flying M Air’s Facebook page has over 1000 likes. That means that over 1000 Facebook users have indicated that they want to see new content. I don’t post much anymore — heck, there are only five or six new posts since July — so it isn’t as if I’m bombarding page followers with content. It doesn’t matter, though. Facebook isn’t showing this content to the people who want to see it. Indeed, one of my posts from last summer “reached” only seven people.

Yeah. Seven out of over 1000.

Facebook Post
This post came out two days ago, yet was shown to only ONE person. For all I know, it could be me.

Against my better judgement, I set ML Jewelry Designs up on Facebook, too. I figured: why not? But rather than put a lot of energy into keeping its page up-to-date with new content, I set up new posts on its WordPress-based website to automatically post to the ML Jewelry Designs page on Facebook. This means the page gets new content just about every day. (I schedule posts so no more than one new item appears each day.) Now the page is less than a month old and has only 20 followers. But I’m getting the same ridiculous low reach numbers I get with Flying M Air.

So here’s the situation. Facebook users have indicated that they want to see the content posted on certain pages. But the Facebook algorithm has decides what they should and shouldn’t seen. My two business pages don’t pay for “promotion” so they’re pretty far down on the list of what gets shown. As a result, my content doesn’t appear for anywhere near the number of people who have indicated they want to see it.

So why bother posting it?

And what about the people who like a page because they want to see all of its new content? How many of them think there just isn’t anything new because it doesn’t appear in their newsfeed?

Can you see why I’m just so done with Facebook?

Open Letter to My Facebook Friends

Posted on by
4

A version of what I posted on Facebook yesterday.

Facebook LogoOkay, folks. Most of you should know that I’ve pretty much removed myself from Facebook, popping in now and then just to share a link to a blog post and comment on friends’ posts. I went from being on Facebook for more than an hour a day to being here less than an hour a week and I love having that time back in my life.

I’m still on Twitter a lot and although I know a lot of you “don’t get” Twitter, I do and I really enjoy it. One reason: every tweet from every person I follow always appears in my newsfeed, in reverse chronological order. In other words, Twitter doesn’t use algorithms to decide what I should see and bury the rest.

I’ve been wanting to delete my Facebook account for quite some time now and recent news is making me think again about how foolish it is to participate in a social network that manipulates what content appears for me and other users. I’m very upset that the manipulation has changed how some of my friends and family members think about what’s going on in the world and the amount of hate the content they share seems to generate.

In short: I feel that Facebook and its paying advertisers are brainwashing users, making the people in the country I love ever more divided. I don’t want to be part of that in any way.

So there’s a pretty good chance that the blog post link I share in a moment will be the last one I share here. And an equally good chance that I’ll be deleting my Facebook content and account very soon.

That said, I’d like to keep in touch with all of you. Although I assume that Facebook’s algorithms will show this to a tiny percentage of the 300+ friends and hundreds of followers I still have here, I’m asking those of you who see this to take a moment and let me know where else I can find you online: your Twitter name, blog URL, email address, and/or cell phone number. You can put it in a private message if you like. I want to keep in touch with the folks I like, but I don’t want to do it on Facebook.

I hope you understand.