WT: Social – The Waiting List

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Have you heard that Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales is offering an alternative to Facebook and Twitter? Can you imagine an ‘ad-free’ social network?

The idea is that it would be self-policed, similar to Reddit with the ability to vote on the content. I know ‘zero’ about Reddit so I do not know.

You can get on a waiting list to join for free, or you can pay $12.99 a month to bypass the waiting list. There is a belief people will financially support a network that is donation-funded rather than supported by ads. Membership just crossed the 100,000 member threshold and the waiting list is over 64,000 for free access.

It sounds so good on the surface, but if we look at how many people use Wikipedia for example, I wonder how many of those people respond and donate when asked? My husband responds with a donation every year but I do not.

Also, hacking and manipulation has become so prevalent in social media, I wonder if there is truly a way to recover. Yesterday hubby read an article about how FB accessed users’ iPhone camera simple by scrolling through content. Remember how Steve Jobs always kept tape on his camera?

There are already alternatives to Facebook and Twitter and some have already disappeared into oblivion. Is there room for another? Apparently there will always be room for another.

• MySpace
• Ello
• Reddit
• MeWe
• Google+
• LiveJournal
• Diaspora
• Vero
• Mastodon
• SteemIt
• Quora
• Vero
• Minds
• Raftr
• Sociall
• Twitter
• Instagram
• WhatsApp
• SnapChat
• YouTube
• Vevo
• and on and on and on

Because I believe everything I hear on TV, we would be shocked at how many footprints we leave on social media every day. I am not ready to plunge into deeper, darker, murkier waters. I think I am quite happy spending most of my time here in Blog Land.

It is not lost on me that Jimmy Wales is advertising WT:Social on Twitter.

How many social media networks do you participate in?

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Cutting the Digital Apron Strings

Day 118

It is a gorgeous day here in the foothills. The sun is shining enough to warm up the house and take the edge off our 36° F morning walk. Days like this remind me how grateful I am to be alive. Our brisk walk has become the time we chat about the upcoming day and anything weighing heavy on our minds. It is a nice release.

I have slowly been reducing my time on Facebook and it has been healthy for me. When I do visit, I am reminded how blindly we have given our trust to the unknown people, faces, and companies that manage all the data we so willingly hand over. As bloggers, I suppose we make a decision to open our lives to the world, but social media can be a different animal.

Last night I checked in when I posted the link to my blog. There it was — an ugly discriminating and completely false story. These things used to rile me up and get me on the defensive. I have learned to walk away and discharge the emotion this junk is designed to stir up. I have evolved. 😉

My mind went back to the 1980’s movie TRON. A bit cheesy perhaps, but for 1982 when Pong and Pac-Man were major influences in early gaming, it made its mark. I went back and watched a few of the trailers and the PacMan and Pong references are very present. For me, however, the cautionary undertone of the movie was telling. “…the ultimate tool will become the ultimate enemy.”

So, I spend my time reading and writing and weening myself from the social giants. I am absorbing the sunshine and watching the birds and slowly cutting these digital apron strings by which we all seem to be tethered.