Yes, I confess: I still have a Facebook account. Or "Meta," as we are supposed to call it, these days.
And I still visit it and use it, from time to time.
For those of you familiar with the social media giant, you're probably also familiar with the "memories" feature, in which you are offered up events/old posts of yours you put up some number of years ago.
Interestingly enough, one of my "reminders" today served mostly as a reminder of why I originally left Facebook in disgust... as a result of the increasingly strident and intolerant tones people were taking with each other, as a result of the 2016 US Presidential elections.
I was just getting tired and fed up by watching long-time friends turn on each other over political issues... and risk long-time friendships to intolerantly scream at each other like rabid banshees.
It was that particular "climate" that made me feel very open to alternatives to Facebook, even if I weren't actively looking for them.
I'll be the first to admit that I was NOT looking for (a) a place to earn money for content or (b) to get involved with blockchain/crypto ANY-thing... I just hoped to find a more intelligent and respectful venue.
I ended up here (meaning "Hive 1.0") more or less accidentally because a friend of mine sent me a link to an article about Universal Basic Income that just happened to be published by an early Hive blogger. The comments seemed a lot more intelligent and respectful than the Facebook mudslinging, so I decided to read a few more articles here, and then I decided to create an account...because why not? I wanted to be able to leave comments...
The rest, as they say, is history.
It has been almost six years since that happened, and these days a good 90% of my writing and social media activity happens here on Hive... although I also still go back to Facebook, now and then.
There are certain things Facebook/Meta still does better than Hive... one of which is the ability to create and share photo albums with friends and family, which in turn perhaps points to one of the features that might work as an improvement to the Hive experience. Not that I know how that would be possible... it's my understanding that actual images are not stored on the blockchain.
I also still use Facebook to promote a couple of my businesses... primarily because of the sheer size of the highly targeted audience I can reach... even if it's at a certain cost.
Of course, these are things that speak to how we each use social media. A large part of my user pattern is that social media is a promotional tool.
And yet?
Hive has mostly served to bring me back to my love of writing and blogging, by offering a "format" that's fairly close to what were were doing with "social blogging," some 20 years ago.
Yes, I'm a bit old-fashioned!
I really don't feel disloyal because I still use Facebook... I do so, because I can turn t into helping us pay the bills. And that matters! And we're not currently in the salad days of $200+ blog posts here, so I still have to explore all avenues in front of me.
But Hive is definitely my number one venue these days... six years later.
Thanks for reading, and have a great remainder of your week!
How about YOU? How did YOU find your way to Hive? Are you a "Facebook transplant?" Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
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Created at 20221129 22:22 PDT
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