I left Xitter a long while ago, as it began descending into its current state.
Now as “Meta” kowtow shamelessly, it’s goodbye to Facebook, Instagram, and Threads too. I never had significant content or presence on The Facebook, so no real loss. If your only internet presence is on facebook, then we’ll not be interacting.
Instagram I only ever used as a private account; at some point I may relocate the small amount of content I have there. Threads I was experimenting with, but will now be deleting all the content I have posted there.
This is merely a much accelerated form of the general enshittification process that has been happening for some time. Not unexpected, although the recent volte-face by Meta is disappointing, to say the least.
The green light has been given to pour hate onto people like myself on meta’s platforms, so I will not be present, will not participate, and will not earn them any income. And I’ll call them meta rather than “Meta” because there is nothing “proper” about them; I’ll not be treating the word as a proper name with an initial capital.
Whilst LinkedIn isn’t yet in this category, it feels like it may only be a matter of time. I already keep my actual content that I write completely separate and just point to it from LinkedIn. This is a pattern I will continue, I think, for any other media I dabble with: content on my own site under my own control, pointers to the content on the other media sites.
Meanwhile, Bluesky is – for now at least – a much more pleasant environment than xitter. But I am reluctant to post there yet. Waiting to see which direction it goes in.
Sophie Baskerville 