Thoughts

I’m spending less time on social media

/ Thoughts /

I like using social media primarily to find and follow with people who have similar interests to me in creative hobbies (writing, drawing, zines) and genre-specific media (sci-fi and fantasy novels, TV shows, and movies).

I also browse social media for trending topics and news, but that’s a secondary purpose for me. More like a side effect.

It’s getting more difficult, though, to use social media to find and follow people who have similar interests to me. This is why:

1. Social media algorithms obstruct some content from people I follow.

Twitter and Tumblr let me see posts on my feed in reverse chronological order, but Instagram and Facebook do not. Right now, posts on my Instagram feed are in this order:

  • 4 hours ago
  • ad
  • 6 hours ago
  • 3 hours ago
  • 7 hours ago
  • 23 hours ago
  • 5 hours ago
  • ad
  • 2 hours ago

Why is it like this? Because the algorithm shows you posts based on your behaviors: accounts you interact with most, people you are tagged in photos with, the types of posts you interact with (likes, comments), and even how frequently you open the Instagram app. But this also means if you don’t interact with some of the accounts you follow, you might not see some of their posts.

You can expand your own posts’ reach on Facebook and Instagram by playing along with the algorithm’s game (at least until the algorithm changes again), or you can pay to boost your posts. But the reality is, the everyday user isn’t going to have time or funds to do this. So we’re all at the mercy of the algorithm and advertising budgets for which posts we see and which posts our followers see in feeds.

2. The 24/7 news cycle spills over into social media and oversaturates it.

Updates about the pandemic, politics, and other social issues are important to see, but sharing and re-sharing these posts drowns out other topics. If one person I follow shares an update about the pandemic, I see that post once. But if twenty people I follow share the same update about the pandemic, I see that post up to twenty times. My feed gets oversaturated with redundant posts.

3. People’s social media feeds are their own content plus everything else they share.

Very few people use their social media profiles to share only original content they create. Profiles are a mix of original posts and re-shared content. You might follow a person for one topic (you both like talking about movies), but you see whatever other random posts they re-share, too. There’s no good workaround to see only original posts and not re-shared content.

So I’ve been spending more time reading blogs.

I’ve used Feedly on and off for years, ever since Google Reader was discontinued (RIP), but I’ve been spending more time in it recently. Feedly is the calmest way I have right now for reading stuff from people I follow.

When I go into Feedly, I see people’s blog posts, in chronological order, without re-shares and other noise in between posts. No random topics splintering my attention.

My favorite blogs to follow show how the writer does whatever it is they do. The author who talks about his writing process and where he goes for inspiration. The artist who shows her studio and works in-progress. Business people who talk about work culture. Blogs like that.

I’m looking for more blogs to follow, so if you have recommendations, please let me know in the comments or over on Twitter.

Rules for work

/ Thoughts /

No matter your role; no matter the company.

  1. Figure out what you should focus on and stick to it. Limit distractions as much as possible.
  2. Do the things you say you will do. If you can’t, tell people that sooner rather than later.
  3. Believe people are doing their best unless they give you a reason not to believe that.
  4. Stay humble. What goes up must come down.
  5. You have two jobs: what’s in your job description comes first. Then also — how to do your job better.
  6. Ask for help when you need it.
  7. Offer help if you’re able to.
  8. Stand up for yourself (especially when no one else does).
  9. Never assume someone else’s job is easy.
  10. Remember everyone you work with is human. And you are, too.

Music Migration

/ Thoughts /

So, let go, yeah let go
Just get in
Oh, it’s so amazing here
It’s all right
‘Cause there’s beauty in the breakdown

“Let Go” by Frou Frou

If you visit music streaming sites, you may have heard about thesixtyone’s re-design.  A few days ago, the designers revamped the whole site without letting users know ahead of time.  Thesixtyone is now flashier, features full-screen photos of the artists you’re listening to, and roll-over menus all over the screen.  Some sites–a lot, actually–have written praise for the bold move.  TechCrunch and the Los Angeles Times have both commented on how much better thesixtyone is now and what a bold choice the designers made.  Many long-term users of thesixtyone left comments on those articles detailing what we lost in the re-design, most notably, the community features that made the site so unique in the first place.

Users e-mailed the designers to voice their concerns about the lack of features in the re-design, but the site owners aren’t responding.  Meanwhile, browsing new artists and songs on thesixtyone is more difficult.  The site feeds you tracks to listen to rather than letting you hunt down your own music, as it was before.  The community features that remain are buried behind menus.  Artists can’t keep in touch with their audiences and are selling less tracks since the re-design launched.  The new sixtyone may be a nice music streaming site to new users, but the creators of the site alienated the people who made thesixtyone so great in the first place.

Out of all of this, something beautiful and incredible is happening.  Thesixtyone’s creators took away community features, but they can’t kill the community.  Word spread around that people were moving on to another music site called uvumi.  Uvumi isn’t exactly like the old version of thesixtyone, but it has a good community and independent artists who truly care about their work.  It is a social music site in the sense that artists and listeners have conversations.  All users talk to each other and discover music together.  That was the spirit of thesixtyone.  People aren’t putting up with the overhaul (read: destruction) of thesixtyone, and we’re gathering on uvumi.  The site grew by 30% in the past week.  We’re inviting artists to create profiles and upload their music on uvumi.  The staff have been very welcoming and wonderful in accommodating the rapid increase in site activity.

We’re finding each other and sticking together, maintaining the community and enjoying our music away from thesixtyone.

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