Awareness of the outside world. Pluralistic: Three AI insights for hard-charging, future-oriented smartypantses, Doctorow, January 31, 2024. It’s all a man in a robot suit. Hat tip to M.
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Restarted two projects. Dropped one. State of the Blog [Archives]
Instagram post from Christmas.
Reactivated Account 1
Facebook. Rodney’s Saga
I post the new blog link each day. I will try not to get too tight about it. For example, if I turn my computer off for the weekend, I’ll just skip the FB posts and move on. Or perhaps catch up on Monday, particularly if there was a guest post over the weekend (I’m looking at you, Sunday).
Reactivated Account 2
Instagram. @Virtual Brush Box
First Instagram post of reactivated account on 2 December 2023.
Mainly an account to announce new posts. I changed the profile to indicate this & said so in the first post. So far, only one Instagram post that was a not announcing a new blog post, above. That was an experiment in posting post right away rather than saving for the blog. [A Christkindlmarkt in Alabama, Vicarious Travel]
I haven’t done a solo Instagram post since. Probably won’t. I keep thinking it would be fun to have an active Instagram account. Then I tell myself a daily blog is enough.
Why?
I stopped because I was getting drawn into the fetid sink hole that was Facebook, see below.
I restarted because I found myself looking at Facebook about once a day. Checking on friends. Logging off. If I was doing that, why not post the blog link at the same time? Either Facebook is a shadow of its former self, or I have developed self-control. For whatever reason, I seem to be able to sign on, post the link, & leave.
Might as well do Instagram at the same time, for the blog posts with photos. I realize Facebook and Instagram are both aspects of the Borg that is Meta. The Instagram algorithm is slightly different, and occasionally works for me.
As for all of the other social media options? Too many rabbit holes. Too many time sinks. These were in place and easy to restart.
For Reference
Below are screenshots as an archive & for those can’t/don’t want to access Instagram. Taken 9 January 2024. To make them identifiable as such, the border color is from the Instagram logo.
Account profile from Instagram.
Posted above. The one Instagram post that is not from the blog. Everything else on Facebook or Instagram duplicates what is on the daily post. Text, “Cullman Christkindlmarkt. (p) No post related to this. Just random pretty photo that occurred and seem perfect for Insta.”
Posted above. Text, “Using this as a Notification Account. (P) Experimenting with putting up links to new blog posts. Will be close to daily, depending whether or not post has a photo. Follow or not as inclined.” with graphic from post & link to blog. [Streak, State of the Blog]
Deleted Project
Speaking of changes. I have dropped the Now page. Status was staying very much quo. This a good thing, given possible alternatives. This was a bad thing, meaning that the news wasn’t particularly novel or interesting for you to read. This was an annoying thing because I was struggling for what to say and being reminded each month of how much we were not doing.
You can see that my last Now page was a repetition of the previous month. I did not see this changing. If we come to a point where we are awash in joyful activity, I may revisit the concept.
Start [State of the Now, New Feature, Same News] August 2022
Stop [Rolling Into Next Month, State of the Now] November 2023
More Reference
‘Why I left’ message posted in 2020, in case I change my Contact page.
“Ending daily link posts. I am taking a personal break from Facebook. Too much angst. There is gracious plenty of that from the news. Don’t need to look for more. Since I have no self-control, that means a blog break from FB as well. I can’t seem to sign on, post the link, & leave. For daily posts, you can Follow by Email over on the blog, or bookmark the page, same bat time, same bat channel. Thank you. Hope to see you there.” RSFB message, May 19, 2020″ From Contact 29 Jan 2024.
In case you were wondering why Rodney’s Saga & Virtual Brush Box. [State of the Blog, Introduction] > What’s with the two names? Clearly, I changed the title but never got around to changing to the url. It’s on my To Do List. Deeply buried.
Onwards!
Katherine
Virtual Brush Box 
A lot. I am always blown away.
I read blogs & text and email and -shock- still use the phone-but have never joined FB nation- my mom, sister and niece haven’t either, but my husband has (just on an occasional basis, and he’ll sometimes give me some news about a friend or in-law)…I think I’d enjoy Insta but haven’t jumped in and a friend’s account was hacked so that made me skittish. I think I’ve probably enjoyed a lot more relaxation, work, rest and time with real people and my horse as a result! I’m not a Luddite but I use tech as a tool and assistant to my work and social life, although I know I’m in the serious minority. This in no way should be considered judgmental about anyone but I wonder sometimes about how much I miss ( or am not missing!).
A month later (got to get better about comments!). Not sure what the effect of more social media has been. OTOH, easy enough.