🧪 Back on social media: an experiment
I wrote before (last month I think?) that I was done with all social media, and I was. I got to thinking though that my main issue is avoiding the stuff I don't like from the people I do like. I really don't want to argue with the folks I like. At this point I don't want to argue at all. If only people would take advantage of tags and the other options that both Mastodon and Bluesky provide for people to curate their timelines. Lists of words to filter are great but often someone will post a screenshot of something from Twitter or another site rendering those filters completely ineffective. On Bluesky people post pornography and don't label it as such. In many cases if people would simply tag things like political posts everyone's life would be better.
This may sound dumb but this is a real struggle for me. I have strong feelings about many things like many others but I don't like where people of my political persuasion are taking things these days and it's hard not to speak out against that. It is also not popular. We are not going to get anywhere by attacking each other. We should be practicing tolerance and forgiveness. If someone has a pattern of bad behavior it's one thing. If they don't, forgiveness and gentle help is the better way.
Then I was thinking that why can't I just move past those posts if I see them? I don't care that people have their political opinions but right now many folks are posting their outrage (or quoting someone else's) more than the stuff that makes them interesting as people. Those things are still being posted though, even if they are few and far between, so why can't I accept that I can't control any of it and enjoy what I can and do the best I can to either filter or ignore (the ultimate filter) the rest?
So a new experiment: get back on social media and practice all of this. With an interest in Stoicism and wanting to work on that practice being back on Mastodon and Bluesky will be a Stoic trial by fire. After all if one can't practice acceptance of what is and understand how little one has control over anything on social media then it can't be practiced anywhere. It's a great training ground for that.
The rules:
- Set up as much filtering as possible.
- Use lists for stuff like politics where it would be better to not have certain topics in my main timeline.
- If something gets past #1 ignore it and move on. Do not engage.
- Make liberal use of muting and blocking.
Finally:
Remember this is supposed to be enjoyable over anything else and a way to connect with people.
Here goes nothing... 😬
Find me on Bluesky at jasonekratz.bsky.social and on Mastodon at @jasonekratz.