Social Media Policy – The Internet of Words

#Narrating2018/Social Media Asides

Only Myself to Blame

March 20, 2018March 21, 2018 Internet of Words1 Comment

When I saw the Cambridge Analytica story break on Saturday night, ahead of the expose in the Guardian on Sunday, I made the point to my husband that by this time in the week ahead, it would be all anyone was talking about. Last night, he came and congratulated me for my foresight. I’ve not had a serious Facebook presence for many years, and the only reason name is not deleted completely from the platform is that it is a requirement when one advertises using a Facebook page. There are no illusions when it comes to my presence on the platform. I’m there to build a brand.

The platform, however, isn’t interested in my needs, only its own.

I only have two ‘friends’ linked to my main Facebook page, and sometimes five or six times a day the algorithm attempts to get me to follow somebody they know. I’ve spent an hour some days clicking ‘remove’ until the list is clear, to come back the next day and find everybody is back. This ‘social network’ does not take no for an answer. Saying you are not interested is insufficient. It continues to hassle you until you either give in or stop listening. Those people now wanting to blame the people behind the application for the damage it has caused fail to grasp that it is not just drug dealers who are culpable for addiction issues. Facebook is our fault too.

Watch this, and then repeat the following sentence until you stop consuming without thinking.

If you cannot see the product, THE PRODUCT IS YOU. https://t.co/VhOjnaYLVf

— S (@MoveablePress) March 18, 2018

What continues to strike me with amazement, is the willingness some people accept the virtual world as being fact. It isn’t just fake news either: yesterday, someone popped up in my Twitter mentions, assuming I was an artist because a news article about said individual was linked in relevance to an item I was promoting. The leap in logic that took place was, frankly, staggering, but it also demonstrated an arrogance of perception that should be giving many people cause for considerable concern. Social media makes us believe that major World events are ours to influence, whilst sitting in front of a screen or holding a mobile device.

The truth, of course, is anything but.

The arrogance of many people is now even more apparent than ever before: watching key players in the row trying to blame each other is almost comical when the truth remains that if we as users hadn’t have insisted we all needed this platform, none of it would have happened. If individuals organised themselves better, didn’t think success equated to huge follower numbers and stopped believing the future exists in a cloud and not in front of them… The Internet is a brilliant place when it’s just a library, or a repository for knowledge. It’s totally fine with small groups of people who organise their own rulesets. The problem comes when someone turns up and wants to make money from your ignorance and fear.

This has always been the way the World has worked, people who seem to think this manipulation is somehow new. Religion has used these tactics to subjugate populations and keep the rabble in check for thousands of years. Don’t worry, people of faith, I’m not about to diss your omnipotent overseers. I’m looking at a Catholic Church that would tell people there was no way they’d get into heaven without a payment plan. I’m remembering the Snake Oil sellers and the guy who convinced you he could make it rain simply by doing a dance. Playing on basic individuals needs to be loved, popular and not alone… happened since the Human race came out of the caves. Sure, there needs to be better regulation of such things, but honestly?

Only ourselves to blame here.

Today, I’ll be removing my Facebook presence for good using this Guide. On considered reflection, if it matters that much, then someone can start a fan page for me. Other people can post my links to their pages. If they want me, I’m here, in a place that I regulate under my own terms and conditions. This way there is no need to then get frustrated at the daily efforts to make me be ‘social’ which are nothing more than beating me up and hoping finally I give in to make it stop. That’s not how you make people care, and it is certainly not a future that is either desired or preferable.

Sometimes, the only way you make things better isn’t to hope somebody else solves the issue, but to attack it for yourself.

[EDIT:

There. That’s sorted now.]

#Narrating2018/Oh For Goodness Sake/Social Media Asides/The Great Social Media Experiment

I Think We’re Alone Now

January 23, 2018 Internet of Words

Last week I got a couple of shocks via Social media. All of them involved people having conversations where it was abundantly apparent they’d forgotten the Internet is public.

We’ve all experienced a moment in our lives when something’s been posted on the Internet we wish hadn’t. Once upon a time, there were no delete buttons. You did not get the chance to reverse your decision. However, crucially in current conditions, even deleting an offending post will not mean you’re off the hook. All those people I watch remind themselves ‘I must delete all that stuff I said in the morning’ are already far too late to fix the damage done. If someone else can see it, they can screencap it. Sure, there are ways to spoof Twitter to make it look as if someone said summat they didn’t, but this is largely beside the point.

You should not be saying in public anything you will regret, ever.

Yet I watch people who accuse others of being troublemakers when that’s exactly their own modus operandi: casual racism, sexism and all points in between. Pronouncing righteousness, reinforcing stereotypes, and the by now almost metronomically predictable subtweeting. Yeah, I get those other people piss you off. If it is that much of a problem, then remove them from your feed. Use a mute button, block them but do not sit and complain. If someone professes an opinion that you do not ascribe to, this is not a reason to hate them. It is a reason to keep them in your feed and learn from them.

The Internet is not just here for your benefit.

YOU CAN LIKE SHIT

YOU CAN NOT LIKE SHIT

Just don't force other people to like what you do or get upset when they don't. pic.twitter.com/SAvJEQFalB

— S (@MoveablePress) January 22, 2018

Tolerance is in short supply right now and is sorely needed in every walk of life. It is possible for us all to learn from each other, in so many different and surprising ways. Telling other people how to think and act has taken place for thousands of years, the only difference now is that the stage on which it happens is far larger than ever before. The sensitive and susceptible are in danger of believing everything they read as truth. It is already happening.

I wish more people would start thinking and stop posting.

#Narrating2018/#Soundtracking2018/Social Media Asides/Writing as Therapy/Writing Projects

Is That All There Is?

January 17, 2018January 17, 2018 Internet of Words

You may not know this, but I have a Facebook page.

Let’s be honest here, it’s just a place where I retweet blog posts and my two Instagram feeds. I’ve tried interactions but honestly my heart is not in it. I also have a personal page but it is never used and I frankly refuse to acknowledge the procession of ‘friends suggestions’ I’m given. I can tell you exactly when my love affair with the platform ended. In the same 48 hour period, my dad and a woman I’d taken steps to distance myself from in the past both asked to follow me in quick succession. There’s a reason you put life in your own hands and don’t hand it to algorithms. After that, Facebook was always going to be an afterthought.

Honestly, I have no regrets at all.

Now I’m told that all that Fake News in the US has wrought some mindful change in the platform… except people I trust are saying this is hollow. You can now make adverts for lost pets or to poll your community on what is the best picture from your family photo-shoot… but you’ll be asked to pay for them. There’s no way this platform can sustain itself as free without advertising somewhere, and it has to happen as a result, because there’s only so many ways your finite data resources can be sold. Mostly, any notion of change is irrelevant when it lies to its own users in order to get attention. I am consistently told I have far more notifications than is actually the case. An algorithm offering a new friend ‘suggestion’ is not a notification I asked for or wanted.

If I didn’t think there might be some redeemable part of this company, I would have deleted my presence a long time ago. As it happens, we may well be about to reach that point.

As I approach the point where social interaction matters less and less if accompanied by any kind of deception, it is easier to simply uncouple from the drama. Not everybody has to be your friend. Just because other people follow you does not mean it is a requirement to either reciprocate or feel an urge to become overtly social. I have decided that if there is no real meaning in my relationships, it won’t matter how many followers appear after my name. Most people only turn up for two things anyway: offering free shit is always a great guarantee of grasping that passing interest, or having a notion of genuine skill. If I get good enough via writing to garner a large following, they will get my sense of humour and how I react to shit like this, OR ELSE THEY’D NOT HAVE FOLLOWED ME TO BEGIN WITH.

Social media is never truly yours to dictate until a certain level of ‘fame’ is reached.

If I believe what I’m told, every time I use the f-word in a Tweet half the platform’s automatically censored from seeing I exist anyway. It doesn’t matter what I say, it is all being sanitised before the World can get indignant about it. The fact my follower count is in the negative this month for the first time in a while is nothing to do with people leaving in droves. I’m setting my own rules, and once they’re organised, we’ll see about turning those numbers around.

I’m not afraid of being alone. The bigger concern remains being genuine and true to what I believe. Once that’s consistent, we’ll work on everything else.

#Narrating2018/General Writing Post/Here is the News/Internet of Words/Uncategorized

The Test

January 5, 2018 Internet of Words1 Comment

Question: When the past arrives unannounced, how will you cope?

This tweet was sent as abuse to me back in 2016. It's been liked 14 times. All of them are spam/porn accounts.

Twitter needs fixing 😀 https://t.co/Cf0YNVEn4w

— S (@MoveablePress) January 3, 2018

The last thing you really need on the first week back into work of 2018 is the reminder of how someone decided to abuse you anonymously. That’s what I got on Wednesday however, when a Pornbot favourited the Tweet above, thus making it reappear in my timeline. Staggeringly for me came the realisation that THIRTEEN other fake accounts had done the same, but because I cleared out my block/mute filters at the start of the year, I’d never seen it. PING, there it was again, sitting in my timeline. It reminded me of a number of people responsible for a tirade of abuse during that period of my Twitter ‘career’ whom were all unfollowed for the same reason.

Their use of this platform was, and still is, disturbing.

I reported it to Twitter of course but nothing happened, and on reflection it is no surprise. There’s no genuine threat, just a bunch of vitriolic abuse, undoubtedly meant to make the author feel better about their abandonment. This is the reason why, when I follow people, I now take time to check their Twitter followers. If all I find are accounts for female streamers, Twitch partners and women-only sports teams, plus a bunch of porn bots, I’m sorry but I will be arbitrarily judging your life choices based on harrowing previous experience. It is also fairly likely you’ll be unfollowed in short order.

There’s also a certain type of Twitter user for whom the platform is an extension of their ego: this isn’t just limited to male users, either… in fact there are many women whom seem to live under the apprehension that Social media allows the them to become judge and jury of all misdemeanours and personal shortcomings. I’m not on Twitter for the popularity contest. This is NOT about how many people I can mention in a #FF post. This is where I work, and live with people who I’m grateful respect me and took the time to grasp that I too have shortcomings. That’s why this platform works best when you remember it is called Social media for a reason.

Once it is established the Universe does not revolve around any one individual, life gets easier for everybody. Of course this makes those whose gravity has been savaged often more than a little aggrieved, but in time you can become surprisingly adept at dealing with the fallout. There’s also the reminder at this point that if you’re kopping abuse for your work, then it’s still exposure… the question then becomes what you do with that. For me, this blast from the past is a reminder of how far I’ve travelled since that point. It made me stronger and all the more determined to keep going.

It has also made me think that perhaps, at least in the last few months, Twitter may be making some inroads into curbing the number of abusive accounts allowed on the platform, plus the number of robots. Certainly I am seeing a marked decrease in the number of ‘random’ follows from accounts with no real association with anything I do. Using hashtags was normally a sure-fire means of pulling odd accounts with massive numbers of followers to my door, but now that does not happen. It makes me think it might be time to resurrect the Great Social media Experiment for another year.

As part of my Hashtag Series there’s a good chance you’ll see posts on Social media, written from the point of view of someone who’s close to having made 200,000 tweets. This has become a vital and significant part of my growth strategy, and the means by which I write and work. Twitter is a hugely useful platform for change and revolution, but only if you grasp how it works best. I’m still staggered at the way some companies refuse to use it as a force for good, or simply ignore the impact a lack of instant response can have in the modern world.

I learnt my lesson back in 2016: saying nothing is a perfectly valid response if you don’t want to fuel a fire. Looking back, it was absolutely the best course of action.