Raven's View

These interactions are important to us all, as we are social beings. COVID lockdown had isolated a lot of us for several years, something handled better perhaps by us introverts. At any rate, now restrictions have lessened, but going out is more expensive, and the polarization of ideas, in the Trump/COVID era, has trimmed down our friends list. We saw them for who they really were. We still rely a lot on online social interactions, interactions which are, to a large extent, managed by monetizing algorithms. People see what we write based on the needs of the social media platform, not the needs of the actual writers and readers. And their responses and interactions depend on who else is there, and their own mood and time. Especially if the platform simplifies that all with emojis. No need to actually reply, just add a like or a heart or a sad face. I think any response boosts your standing in the eyes of the algorithm though, so the key is to just post cute and provocative images and encourage lots of extreme left/right-wing commenters.

My main platform over the years - off and on - has been Facebook, and my older friends are still there. Youngsters are mostly on Instagram now, I think - maybe now it’s TikTok or Snapchat. Doesn’t matter, same algorithm trap. I tried Mastodon, a small local instance. Depending on the ‘tab’, I can see posts (toots) by people I follow, or by people they follow, or by everyone in the network my instance knows about. I have met some fascinating people from around the world and found some interesting sites. Some interactions, but not as easy as other platforms. And the feed of all this is chronological in each tab. I can filter and select somewhat, but it’s the same firehose as from most other sites.

I’ve started posting several times a day to Facebook again - interesting articles and stories I come across, with (hopefully) a thought-provoking intro. I’ve no idea though how many of my 500 or so friends see them - I may sometimes get an emoji, but rarely more. And those posts all disappear down the Facebook river, unless someone spies them right away or deliberately digs into my posts.

I used to blog a lot, via ravensview.ca, and still do occasionally. People can follow me there either with an RSS feed or subscribe- either way what I put there gets sent to them specifically, without intervention by an advertiser. Comments are welcome, but on a per-post basis.

Substack is a similar direct feed, in that people subscribe, and get a newsletter for every post. Click the link, and go to the post on my substack site. Or not. Once there you can leave comments for others to see. I follow a number of people in there, such as from Paul Wells , Letters from an American , and Terry Fallis - A Novel Journey . Some are free, some have a monthly fee. Mine is free for now.

So, Plan B. It’s been a while, I’ll try doing 1-2 newsletters a week again, with comments enabled of course.

I’ve enabled Chat, a new tab for your Substack app/viewer, where subscribers can join in.

And I’ll try Notes - a place for me to post, on my substack, small bites of interesting stuff, without individual emails announcing them.