Internet (Greed) - Have you visited Facebook lately? No, I mean have you? Don't laugh at me. Even if you already gave up on the platform you know how far it's fallen.
I am spending less time there every day. I am going to other sources, other platforms, seeking new ways to get an aggregate view of alternative news sources. Nothing so far has provided me with what I am looking for, the information tied together with the conversation, and input of people I enjoy communicating with, even with the trollish disagreements that require I keep on my toes.
Yeah, I'm on all the platforms. The time though....... Building the friends lists, finding the sources you want to follow, all of that. It's boring, it's time consuming and at the end of the day, it's just ughhhhh.
What's the alternative? Turning to the mainstream media to inform me? Hell no. Bouncing from website to website? Well yeah, I could, and have been to some extent. Neither of those alternatives fills the void though.
Just thinking of all the things I could accomplish in a quick visit to Facebook: Helping a lost pet find their home, helping a neighbor find a new spot for sushi, locating the perfect used couch for my living room, laughing hysterically at a great new meme, seeing a quick video of my nieces from 300 miles away, catching up on the latest news from sources I self-selected, a new recipe for tomorrows dinner. All of that and more, in just minutes, from one location...
I have yet to find any platform that could allow anyone to do all that so simply and smoothly. Now that seems to include Facebook, my last few quick visits showed me my own posts from a couple days ago, a sponsored article or two, the same meme my friend shared yesterday that I have seen 6 times now. Nothing from any groups or forums I joined, not a single post from any of the pages I have selected to follow because I want to see them. Why bother?
I don't even know where to begin. Facebook gave our outlet a great place to get started, our feet were just getting under us and the rug vanished.
Of course, we dusted ourselves off and got back to work. Can we take a moment though to scream into the void about that process? Please? Independent media helped build Facebook to what it is today. I've watched it become a central piece of the platform. Now though? Well if you don't have the financial backing of an IJR you can kiss views, clicks, shares a big, wet, smoochy goodbye.
We are all mass migrating to new outlets it seems. waving goodbye to the data we helped build on Facebook, the data that was actually useful to all of us when trying to expand our audience, and going where we are pretty much at the bottom of the heap. Hey, none of us are scared of work, I think that goes without saying. Most are pretty adept at figuring out new things. But this sea of newness, trying to build an audience in a new world, trying to change business models on the fly to fit into the evolution. Perhaps I am lucky we are a small fish, the loss isn't as large, and there is nowhere to go but up. That doesn't mean a small part of me isn't hoping Facebook will see the error in their changes.
Steemit may be the answer, let's hope it is. In the meantime, we work on Twitter, Google+, Tumblr, Instagram, Minds, (Silently hoping something changes)... Anywhere that we may catch the fleeing facebookers. If one of these isn't the solution we will keep trying till we find the right fit. As consumers and as the producers, I don't see many giving up. I think it may be in our blood and giving up just isn't
All we can do now is to keep sending up flares and let others know where we are, keep passing along tips and working together to create a new home for Independent Media.
Written by Dragon Lady for Greed Media
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