Saturday Social – Dec 6, 2025 Edition

I don’t do many Saturday Social posts, as not much changes, so there’s nothing new about which to write! I still use 2 main platforms: gab, and mastodon; I also scan a few others but don’t participate much – if at all. Today I want to talk about gab. Again.

I probably use gab slightly more than mastodon, as it offers more of what I enjoy. They are undergoing a big change right now, and that is what I want to write about today. I have some first impressions I want to share. It will take a few days, a week maybe, for the dust to settle and any bugs to be ironed out. I’ve been experiencing a glitch here and there but am biding my time, a such a massive roll-out is never smooth sailing; I can be patient.

My first impression is that it looks a whole lot more like so many other platforms, such as FB, with the general layout; links on the left, timeline in the center, other info on the right. It is still easy to find what I need, I will just have to look for things until I’m used to it. Posting, replying, using emojis (for “like” and such), all easy as it was before. The pages look more open and less crowded. The fonts seem smaller but I have an adjustment on my browser that can fix that. Haven’t seen anything I can’t work out.

BUT it does some strange “magic” (their word) to the photos that I post, via AI. I’ve made no secret that I do not use AI, at least not knowingly. I avoid sites and pages that use it, and seek out those that plainly state that they do not. Gab loves AI, though, and his its own version on a separate but related site, which I do not use – I don’t touch it. But now it touches me by doing something to every photo I post, and it has their AI symbol. I am not happy about that. A former pastor’s wife used to use an analogy when discussing “just a little sin” in our lives: You can make brownies with cocoa and butter and sugar and flour and other pure ingredients and it’s all good…add even “just a little dog poop” into them though, and the whole batch is now inedible. And that’s kind of how I feel about letting “just a little AI” into my life. 2 things about this: The choice to “use” it or not has been taken out of my hands, and this is only a first step toward a bigger and bigger role that their “Christian” AI (no such thing – code cannot have a soul) will have on the platform.

There are many people on gab right now who are shaking their fists at the changes, making threats to leave the platform, and generally whining and complaining about it all. (My nieces used to use the term “wussbabies” when their friends were whining about things they couldn’t change hahaha! I’d forgotten about that until now…) Just like any businesses, we all have choices about using any platform or not, we can stay or we can leave/shop elsewhere, and mature people, who learned the futility of the “I’ll show you!” mindset, implement their choices without drama. Which is what I will do after I prayerfully decide how I will manage AI being forced upon me there. Will I revise my beliefs? Or will I stand by what I now believe? I have a few months left in my subscription to decide.

Meanwhile I certainly recognize and honor Mr Torba’s right to run his business as he sees fit, just as we all have the right to use whichever platforms best suit us. And I will continue to use and enjoy my friends and all of the features of this great platform until I change my mind. If and when I decide gab no longer suits me, I will simply go elsewhere.