Connected

It's been a little over a year.

I have a tendency to hold on to e-mail messages for a long time, even if I have replied. Maybe I need to write more, or act on it, or it would just be something good to remember. Even though I have a perfectly good "saved" folder, I am more likely to see it in my inbox.

That does seem to be less true when the amount of e-mail goes past 500.

It is down to 230 now.

The current layer included some messages that related to the fear of Twitter going away. 

I am set up to get an e-mail notification when I get a direct message. There really weren't that many messages from that, but I remember it was part of a bigger trend where I thanked people for ways they influenced me, promised to read their books, told them how much I appreciated them...

Mostly it was tweets, but there were a few direct messages and some replies.

Twitter is still here. Sure, they pretend it is called "X" and the button for "retweet" now says "repost", but the site is still twitter.com. Maybe that will be the next change.

There have been many changes, and none of them have been for the better. There are definitely more racists, and the ad insertions are a lot more intrusive. I don't send direct messages anymore because to receive them I have to receive direct messages from any blue check; that seemed like a bad idea since blue checks are the kind of people who think giving an egomaniacal emerald heir money makes them friends. I probably could still send messages to people who follow me, but if I can't see their replies, what's the point?

I don't think the algorithm is working in my favor at all, so I don't know that people really see my tweets. A lot of people that I liked are gone anyway.

Also, a lot of people have become a lot worse. That was something that was happening all along, where I would think someone was pretty cool and insightful, and then would slowly become disillusioned. That's happened with more people, but I don't blame that on Twitter so much as just the world (and dominator culture).

I had decided sometime ago that I don't have it in me to start on a new social media site, and I am sticking to that. The way I came to the Twitter I liked was so much a path that could not have been predicted but worked out so well... it couldn't be recreated. That wouldn't matter if I were optimistic about something else being created that would be worth the effort, but I don't feel drawn toward any of that.

I do sometimes think of increasing my participation on one of the other sites that I am on: posting on Tumblr again, doing more on Facebook, or maybe even installing Instagram on my phone so I could actually post. 

For now, that remains a "no". At the same time, as I sort through old e-mails and files and things, who knows where that winnowing will lead?

It is meaningful to me that a year later, I have heard from people I have met through Twitter, but been contacted via e-mail and Facebook. As important as a platform can be for connecting, no platform is the only means of connecting.

There are much more valuable aspects of Twitter for new and organization and activism that have been damaged.

However, I am still stubbornly sticking it out. At this point I am hoping someone will seize the platform from that guy, and maybe it can be good again.