I had a different topic in mind for tonight, and have been preparing it for days. But now is not the time. Maybe Thursday I’ll share my thoughts about it…or really, I can do a special post on it any day of the week right? It’s my website, after all…and glorifying God is the point, on every single day of the week.
Anyway, I haven’t updated you on my social media activity in a while. (Now stop rolling your eyes! There is a reason I’m doing this first – as you will see when I share what’s been on my mind, as mentioned above.) So that’s what I will do here. And then, when I talk about, you know, the other thing, you’ll already have the backstory.
I still LOVE gab. There are some things happening that I DON’T love there <cough>AI</cough> but I still love the people, the uplifting and encouraging and sharing and praying and everything else that brings me back day after day after day. However it is becoming overwhelming! I created a list of my VFPs (very favorite persons) that I pretty much stick to, along with my VFGs (very favorite groups) when I visit. But just keeping up with the posts doesn’t leave enough time to do much commenting/supporting/encouraging others! So I’m just getting into a new plan! I have created a second list – a private list – and those who interact with my posts are on that list. And those are now the people who I concentrate most on interacting back – as in actually commenting and discussing and such. There are considerably fewer folks here than on my “main” list so I have the time time AND the mental ability (I don’t get as overwhelmed) to concentrate on actual interactions. Then, on the first list, I rely more on clicking icons as I read through. (Note that the 2nd list contains many of those on the first, anyway.) For the groups, I have chosen 5 that I will be posting/commenting on regularly – or even daily, if I can manage it. Basically, I guess I’ve made a smaller gab for myself, one that is more manageable. I still have my home feed, consisting of everyone that I follow, and I scan through that once or twice a week too…but I’m now concentrating on a much smaller group of people to use my time more effectively – and my brain!
I still LOVE theres.life (a Mastodon instance on the fediverse). And I’m very involved there. Now that I’ve been “promoted” to admin I feel more purpose and satisfaction from what I do there, even though in reality I’m still doing what I always did as the moderator :). And though I love making sure I see and comment on – or at least acknowledge, if commenting isn’t applicable – every toot (post) made by our members who are my brothers and sisters in Christ (presumably, at least), and check in with them several times a day, I spend most of my time there moderating. For those not familiar, we get several feeds: our local feed (the other members of our own instances), the home feed (those that we follow), and the federated feed (those who have a connection with our instance, typically those who are followed by any of our members or past members, and a few others). As you can imagine, this is an enormous feed! An instance with 500 members, for example, where each member follows 500 people, gets all the toots from a quarter of a million people!! And this is the feed that I moderate. Because our instance is Christian, we have stricter rules than most others. And of those whose toots go into our federated feed, there are a lot that don’t follow our rules. So I scan as many of these incoming posts as I can and delete* any that contain suggestive sexual content or porn, profanity, bigotry against other or their beliefs, harassment, spam, etc. Yeah. That takes a ton of time. BUT it is necessary, and I can do it, and I ALSO, even moreso actually, find so many delightful, entertaining, informative, classy, and beautiful souls that I can also follow as I scan! There are a lot of young people in our instance, and I take very seriously that there are things that should never go into their minds – I do my best to get rid of it before it can. And that is how I serve that ministry.
*Deleting toots only means that they won’t be seen by our own members; those who actually follow them will still see the toots on their home feed, and of course they still exist across everywhere that they’re federated. It doesn’t inhibit anyone’s freedom of speech.
I’ve talked a LOT about Savior Connect before. I had tried and tried and couldn’t make it work for me. But I was unable to delete my account there no matter how many times I tried (the Lord’s work, for sure!) and now I am taking a new interest. I’m not sure what my role will be there, I won’t be posting much for the time being. Checking in every day, seeing what others are saying, clicking icons and occasionally offering a comment – as well as stealing a meme or two – is about it for now, if and until the Lord leads me to do more.
I also am still on Mewe. I don’t participate in anything anymore but I do like to scan the posts a couple of times a week for anything interesting. I don’t like that I don’t participate more. But really, if I had any reason to – and the time, I would. And I know for a fact that I am long forgotten there anyway :).
And, of course, first and foremost is this site. It is my first love. Though it isn’t as interactive as a social platform, I do stay in touch with some of the most loved people in my life here. And share many things that I don’t care to “put out there” into the social throngs – just with those who have shown they are truly interested simply by visiting me here.
I was always busy and active before. I had an involved life until my stroke. And then as other issues have continued to physically and mentally debilitate me, my life has become less and less active, and I have had to become less and less involved in life outside of my home. I still need, as does everyone, to be useful and social and productive though. And am thankful that these few social outlets have provided me with that. I pray always that the Lord will use me wherever I go, online, or in real life. And this is what I do.
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