Dearest Passionate Hive Participants!
A couple of days ago, I deactivated my (not very active) F***book account, a first step towards detaching myself from that immense network of 'friends' and 'family', and rejecting the only real reason I rejoined a few months ago - which was to connect with groups where I might sell my home - urgh...
all images are my Own here in this post: the first are details from my paintings, then follow images from my walk to the bar where I'm using the internet, through the medieval quarter of Guardia Sanframondi, Italy
A heavy net of intrusion had been settling over me since I even ever-so-tentatively sneaked in the back door, after having been shadow-banned, censored and aggravated endlessly about not being able to simply post what I think about and want to say (back then I had full capacity of 'contacts' and used the platform for networking and collaboration as well as keeping up to date with my relatives).
"What is on your mind?" appears every day on one's profile posting box, but it's like being handed a microphone that isn't switched on, in a crowd where everyone is looking at kittens-and-controversy on the stage, but ignoring the beautiful, talented, sentient beings sitting right next to them.
And F***book 'un-etiquette' seeps into everyday life: whereas my Hive friends have travelled hundreds of miles to visit me, and we've developed intimate relationships and collaborations across the planet, spending hours and days per week connecting, talking, sharing all our deepest feelings - mostly, my Fbook 'friends' cannot seem to get the motivation to pop N E X T D O O R to say hi, invite me to coffee, CONNECT in any meaningful way.
I've noticed a growing tension as I've very gingerly stepped anew into a local meet-up group, and begun attending community meetings again; the capo or instigator always starts to push me towards WhatsApp or Messenger, and is wholly uncomfortable at my either not having the former, or that I don't check the latter. (We live next to each other - literally four doors down - if they really needed my attention, they could even shout me from their balcony as I walk past. But none of that IRL intimacy for them, and a lot off the banter we do share, is spent in attempted coercion to submit!) For the past few months, I've been subjected to minimum one snide/ bullying comment every time we meet up - no matter how polite these folks are with others, I seem to be able to draw out their poison, just by being peacefully unpolluted.
I don't get this kind of haranguing on Hive, bar extremely occasional light pushing to join a cause or make a minor change in my lifestyle - to note: I don't participate (as a passive consumer) in coercion, selling, advertising, or any hooking behaviour of someone attempting to steal my Vitality-Attention-Energy and -sell me plastic beads' in return. I Am. I am a sovereign woman, which means I simply do not operate in contract - and most certainly I do not consent to subjugation. In contrast, mainstream consciousness appears fully committed to not just competition, but tyranny; if we do not openly display subservience to the norms, we are hassled and criticised, and this accumulates until .... I guess, "until I delete my account" - hahaha!
This fact of having my senses alive and awake, means that F**book and its manipulation of the masses is at best highly aggravating, and at worst completely intolerable. It is the antidote (or should I say the nemesis?!) of real life socialising, and of the real value that our time, attention and creativity should RECIPROCATE from each other and the world.
This leads me back to the core of this issue, and the incompatibility with platform and consciousness/ vibration which is innate to it: those of us sensitive to our place in the world right now, the pertinence of these times and what we are doing with our creative attention - it is clear to us that mainstream platforms cannot function for anything other than overloading an already stuffed-full sensory realm. And even light association, for myself, as a highly activated living woman, is a lesson in how to manage toxicity levels in my mindbodyspiritcosmos.
Having had to delete messages from scammers, report fake profiles, mute and hide offensive political or controversial posts - it feels like being in a swampy room of hungry ghosts, and I'm clearing and mopping and smudging with sage all day long. Never mind the publicity, which I never used to see when I used the laptop version of Fb; using the App pulls in all kinds of 'Reels', 'Stories' and truly nasty moving imagery, which the site thinks that I need to see, and which for me is utterly jarring every time. Fleshy things, uptight things, pulling and pushing things, folks desperate for attention, taunting my eyes: even if I click on Hide Reel, or Hide This Type Of Post, the same content comes up and repeats ad infinitum.
my house: the niche in the wall to the side, which I repaired and added some beach-washed pottery scraps to, from the village where I grew up in Scotland
Serendipitously enough, the peak of my aversion to the mainstream comes precisely when I've just gotten my highest reward and upvoting on a post ever, over on our beloved Hive.blog! 1061 votes and a whopping $31.476 payout - so far! And myriad supportive comments on the stripey dress that I had thought wasn't up to much at all: such affirmation to continue and to create more... And this following a composting post that had similar enthusiastic response. I love my friends and family, of course, and I even get positive feedback indirectly when speaking to my dad in Scotland, who has been informed IN REAL LIFE by the folks down the pub in my island village (that I grew up in) that I'm creating great things... But no comments, bar one-word responses, emojis or GIFs; folks literally never respond with anything other than an automated reply.
Similarly, old friends, folks I grew up with and lived with in my village - making 'contact' after years, with a staccato generic phrase or two... then when I open the dialogue up by responding lovingly and enthusiastically, then wait for the conversation to develop............ .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... no reply. End of conversation. Abrupt closure, mid-convo. The reciprocation seems to have been severed, as if folks are so tightly closed into their own wrapping and distortion, that they can no longer extend their attention to co-create even the most basic discourse.
Not that Sting Chat is a great channel yet for conversation on Hive; the folks that I chat most with in comments under Hive posts also connect privately through Signal App, Fountain, Patreon and other less-mainstream platforms: a healthier synergy of deepening conversations about vital subjects - always collaboratively growing, learning, expressing as fully as we possibly can in each everymoment - and with each others' nourishing support and attention.
The so-called main-stream is profoundly sick: it simply doesn't have vitality, honesty, connectivity or presence. The present - the gift of our presence in the present - our whole attention to this moment that we are in commune with, and in which we share our presence/s - is reward in itself, as the reciprocity flows and expands as we connect. The whole value of a mainstream platform, is sucked out of us like the Matrix fields of pods in which we passively are fed upon - and we see it 'returned' to us in AI-generated mini-images, titillation and overstimulation on screens that are so small that we have to raise the device right up into our auric field to even see them. We're not seeing much; our magnificent creative mind fills in the edges with a self-perpetuating echoing reverb of - ooooooh, I like that.... whilst we scroll on to the next mini-image, and lean in closer.... Folks making posts as if they're talking to dead relatives and close-ones: I've done it myself - writing a statement to my deceased friend, asking for the Collective to witness my grief, see my closeness and my loss: are these kinds of posts truly useful in communing with departed loved ones?? I have my doubts, as much as I have my doubts about NHI using mainstream social media to contact us.
Yes, yes, yes - so we all know how awful 'social' 'media' is for us. But what can we do about it?? Well, in my awareness, it's obviously not the platform itself - it's the entire consciousness and customs, multiplied by the collective acceptance of algorithms and external authorities. Even the factor of looking to a tiny wee screen for enter-taint-ment, instead of seeing how we are connected with E V E R Y T H I N G around us, and 'entertainment' is not necessary for the greater part: certainly not as a means of filling-in-the-blanks in a day!! I see folks looking at their screens whilst we're already in a conversation, in company - and frankly they might as well be turning away to sniff coke up their noses.
There is no easy way out of such a conundrum: we can make tweaks and adjustments to how much we're exposed to the toxicity of mainstream - and starved of the valuable sharings of the beautiful people who are all around us and all around the world. But cold turkey might be much more effective; I've done a major deletion of all my data on F***book, after my first 13 year stint there, back when I had much less clarity about what I was losing as a user, and before I'd found the far-superior alternative and got into a proper routine with it. Then I've done minor deletions after having tried to use not just F...book but Instaspam, Twit-ter and the rest. Every time I delete an account, there is a great liberation of energy; a holistic freeing-up of my senses, and a relaxation of my spirit. Subtle and immense change! My inner resources are returned to me, effectively.
The solution, if one could be presented, might be Being Present. I know how difficult this might be, when one's entire subtle-field is fired up to be adrenaline-synapse-super-tension oriented: it can seem almost impossible to sit down and livingly observe, rather than passively consume data. But it can - and has to be - done, if we want to be free, creative, wise, well, and in control of our lives, our health, our sanity. I notice this presence and the appreciation of presence, over on Hive.
I'm tempted to reactivate my mainstream account, as a dinghy for anyone floundering there and wanting out, and even as a trigger to activate some useful contrast to the blandness of what mainstream are usually exposed to... But I know that even the least controversial posts that I've ever shared there, can rouse a truly beastly aggression in folks who are not aware of what is being occulted in their senses, memories, wounds and trauma; what is being suppressed and oppressed: twisted and poised for volcanic release...
capers, caper flowers, and cucinci - young caper fruits
...I'm painfully conscious that, if they wanted to, they could've searched for alternatives before now. This is the sad truth about modern times; billions of folks with all the wisdom of the world at their fingertips, and yet they use the technology to feed off of the teats of corporations, and to have their freedoms and Rights dessicated. If we really want to be well, truly HEALTHY AND FREE, WHOLE AND VITAL, we'll simply look for answers and we find them: all Solutions are right in front of us, in Divine Timing, as we require them, if we are able to lean into Life sufficiently (or even a tiny wee bit!) courageously. If we're not finding solutions, it's because part of us prefers to lean back and be spoon-fed, or to live without solutions.
It's pretty much that simple. Owning our lazy or childish self that is gaining something from being stuck is a super-important step towards autonomy, just as it is a vital aspect of health, wealth and happiness: childishness and laziness is scrolling, clicking,'liking' and taking the bait every time - getting reeled in.
spot-the-kittens, between orange tree leaves - there were at least 3 looking out at me when I snapped this pic!
Talking of health-wealth-happiness - meanwhile Hive continues to provide a sane and sunny haven in the stormy seas of modern socialising: even the basic facts of no adverts and almost-zero sniping, the rewards and the good vibes: what else does one need as incentive to get out of the mainstream?!
Well, if I am answering honestly, it's Real community and connectedness (the kind we are immersed in on Hive), which for those of us who are rejecting modern norms, we've already recognised we cannot find in the big crowd. But most conventional folks - just as they're not really interested in solutions, cannot recognise Real connection, acceptance, harmony. A good example; my family treat me like a black sheep, my physical community like either the Madonna or the witch - rarely anything in the middle, and never the Whole Woman, the All-and-Every-Woman: I'm shunted out of the 'art' 'world' and the 'fashion' 'world', my stable income is almost descending to double-digits: I often sit alone in the bar (/coffee shop), as folks seem to be afraid to approach me - and I don't have any conventional relationships with 'authority', i.e. on paper or certifications.
To the main crowd, this would be viewed as terrible poverty, unbearable solitude, or a reason for depression !!!BUT!!! my world is powerfully rich in Gift, harvest, harmony, fulfilment; the communities I'm reconnecting with are based on deeper values, and Hive is not the provider of these riches (we are not expecting it to be, either!), BUT IT IS an appropriate tool which can augment them. With an actual Real Life to document and express around, I can use the Hive to showcase what I am already doing, thinking, feeling, being: I don't need to turn it into something else, contrive it, make it titillating or dramatic; I simply have to say it like it is, show it as it is. And I get witness, reward, good vibes, wisdom and co-creative expansion in reciprocity, in multifold returned to me: I get multi-levelled reward INCLUDING 'payment', for my presence.
This dynamic is really key to the rebalancing of the forces that have been pitched against each other in our collective realities: the return of our being held and protected in our expression, rather than dog eating dog, and everyone vying for what scraps they can scavenge. The hungry ghosts by their nature can never be satiated: they have to learn to find real nourishment, real witness, real attention, and to source real fulfilment in their reality, instead of thinking that anything on a wee screen could possibly provide our soul satisfaction.
I am glad to be here with you all on Hive in this moment: I have deep and meaningful friendships here, which I know will develop and grow over time, because we are invested in connection and co-creation - not in consuming, pigeon-holing or ignoring!
