Chad Hill

Like planting a tree, the best time to leave Xitter was a few years ago. The second best time is now. Same goes for Meta platforms; Facebook, Instagram, Threads, WhatsApp

“Why should I leave?” you ask. Let me tell you a story…

America voted a rapist for President. A “man” who tried to overturn an election. Incited an insurrection at the Capital, and had national secrets in his bathroom. This person avoided a lifetime in jail, perhaps execution, because justice moved too slowly.

How do so many average Americans vote for that?

I propose it’s because their information diet is Xitter, Facebook, Fox News, OAN, and NewsMax. They were fed a line of bull.

At least I hope misinformation is why he won election. I hate to think that bigotry, hate, and stupidity are enough to get him elected. Could be though, I suppose. But I digress.

If you participate on those platforms, you are enabling this bull to continue. We need to shrink those platforms by dumping them for healthy alternatives.

I’ve heard people say “oh, I skip all that political stuff and only look at my friend’s posts”.

You aren’t skipping the ads, so you’re making the oligarchs richer.

Also, you aren’t seeing ‘all’ your friend’s posts either, not if your friend has different opinions than you.

You are being force fed by an algorithm. An algorithm that is silently shaping your thoughts. That puts you into an information silo. Your social media becomes an echo chamber and you start to hate people who aren’t like you.

When someone claims “immigrants are eating our pets”, you first reaction should be “dude, your crazy” but instead they held up “deport them all” signs at rallies.

The point is, on those platforms, you are a cog in their wheel. And that wheel is about to run us all over.

The Oligarchs are taking over. We are becoming modern day Russia. Perhaps already have.

Just this weekend Musk took control of some US Treasury payment systems. He knows our SS#, address, tax returns, etc. Also he rallied for the actual modern day Nazis in Germany.

I fear that it’s too late. I fear that we may not have elections again. I fear that we are witnessing the Nazis rise to power wearing red, white, and blue MAGA sequined clothes.

I don’t know what kind of acts of defiance we are going to have to perform in the next few years, but ditching the oligarch’s social media seems like it’s going to be the easy one.

I’ve decided to (re)start my blog. It’ll be a place for updates of family-related things and a few simple thoughts.

To see it, you could just visit the web page social.chadeb.com.

Instead, I hope you’ll create a Mastodon account and follow @chill@social.chadeb.com from there.

Also consider following:

• @toot_chill@mastodon.online
  • My Mastodon account (Xwitter). I don’t say much here. I follow a lot of accounts here. I just Boost (retweet) and fave things.
• @chill@gram.social
  • My Pixelfed account (Instagram). I’ve decided this is where pictures of Coco need to be, and pretty pictures that Luke takes of the sunset.
• @chill@bookwyrm.social
  • My BookWyrm account (GoodReads). This is where I keep track of books completed, reading, or want-to-read.

You can follow all those accounts within Mastodon. All are ad-free, algorithm-free, free from personal data harvesting, and oligarch-free.

They are part of ‘the fediverse’, Federated Universe.

Kind of like the way that email servers are federated. Someone with a hotmail.com address can send and receive messages from a gmail.com address.

Social media platforms without the walls that lock you in.

Let’s talk Apps. There are many Mastodon apps for your phone, Apple and Android. For Apple I like Ivory. But there’s also the default Mastodon app.

When Twitter instituted its algorithm, I avoided it with the third party app called Tweetbot. When Twitter banned third party apps, the developers made Ivory for Mastodon.

Finally, if you enjoy your experience in the fediverse, encourage your friends to move.

Also, consider donating a couple bucks to your server host, a small donation to help them cover their costs. Remember, there aren’t any ads or selling your personal data in this system.

I deleted my Facebook and Threads accounts last night. I started the 30-day process anyway. I just can’t be there anymore.

I hadn’t been active on FB for many years, only kept it around for the Class Reunion group.

My Threads account was largely used to plead occasionally with accounts to federate (I got my home town’s account to agree! Thank you City of Ames)

• I remain on Instagram, ugh. I’m see-sawing on whether that one gets axed too. The local school system posts there and I’ll occasionally see stuff with my kids in it.