I spent much of 2016 and 2017 tirelessly building up, with the help of a few others, the Voluntary Japan web presence on Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter.
I would post multiple times daily to Facebook and Twitter, and several videos to YouTube each week. I also ran a weekly live show via YouTube with special guests coming on the show often. Of course, I spent a great deal of time (most of it, actually) working on writing articles and making posts right here on this platform, on the Steem blockchain.
I seem to be at a bit of a crossroads now, after about a month's hiatus from actively uploading to or up-keeping the Voluntary Japan accounts on other social media sites (For those that may not know, Voluntary Japan is my Voluntaryist/Anarcho-Capitalist online initiative with the goal of spreading the principles of Voluntaryism and raising awareness of the evils and brutalities of statism).
The reasons I wanted to "take a break" from the "big three" SMS I was utilizing are as follows:
I felt...dirty. Facebook's privacy policy is a joke, and though I have a network of over 1,000 Voluntaryist friends online via the platform, I don't like being so...well...open. I am torn between wanting to express my views and wishing to retain some modest level of say in my online privacy.
The quality of relationships and conversations on Facebook is often downright pathetic, with grown adults conversing with each other like whiny, entitled 12-year-olds, endlessly slinging gossip-y vitriol.
I live in a nation state where online activism can now be legally construed as "terrorism."
The live show took a lot out of me. I think that maybe I should accept that a great deal of my nature is introverted. I am severely interested in talking about voluntaryism, and love to debate about these sort of topics, but I think maybe I really need to be selective about what I do.
THERE IS VERY LITTLE HUMANITY IN SOCIAL MEDIA. I'M FUCKING SICK OF IT. It's argument city, where good people stoop to calling each other fucking horrible names in a desperate, ego-fueled attempt to be "right," instead of to understand. I have been just as guilty as the next guy. Life's too short and human life too precious to waste it on stuff like this.
Good things about the "big three" SMS I was using:
There is still a lot of positive connection. There is mass reach. I need to express myself or I will go nuts, and those giant social media sites do provide quite a lot of interaction.
There is also less perceived pressure to "craft a post" on Facebook and Twitter, as there are no payouts coming to be "earned." Do you know what I mean? I can post a random snapshot of something amusing and not be concerned because it is "draining the rewards pool."
So I guess I am really considering dropping even the Voluntary Japan aspect of Facebook (I have become much less active on my personal profile already), and leaving it all for well, here, where I feel activism and self-expression is still worth the effort.
Perhaps even just cutting ties and deleting all Facebook accounts. Feels like a new chapter is about to start, and as valuable as the relationships I've forged and found here on Steemit are, they seem much more deserving of my time, effort, and energy.
Plus, once D-Tube gets to where the videos load a little faster, I could go total blockchain and even leave YouTube behind.
Thanks for helping me think through this. This little exploration has helped me immensely, already. I can feel it. Wishing you only the best 2018!!!
~KafkA
Graham Smith is a Voluntaryist activist, creator, and peaceful parent residing in Niigata City, Japan. Graham runs the "Voluntary Japan" online initiative with a presence here on Steem, as well as Facebook and Twitter. (Hit me up so I can stop talking about myself in the third person!)