Social Saturday – August 10, 2024 Edition

I haven’t done a Social Saturday update in a while, and you know me – other than a couple of sites that are I use daily, I tend to jump around a bit to see what else is out there! Well I’ve landed on a couple and seem to be visiting them fairly regularly (and doing some video- and meme-collecting – shhhh, don’t tell!), plus I’ve made some other changes, so here we go!

First, however, I want to say that the last couple of weeks have had a lot going on in my “real life”, more than I thought I’d ever be having to deal with. So pretty much ALL social media took a back seat. And in the few months prior to that some physical issues prevented me from doing much typing (or playing my keyboard); I’ve been adjusting to the latter but the former seems to be ongoing. Which is why I have had to make these changes.

The one change that is having the biggest impact in terms of not only time, but a bit of emotional loss as well, is that I am no longer moderating for the theres.life Mastodon instance, as well as stepping down from my admin post. I’ve been helping with that task for several years and has occupied a large portion of each day, time that I need back now. My heart wasn’t ready for it but my life dictated the change. Of course I am still a member and will continue to be as active as time allows, I love the instance and the other members and especially the instance owner who I think of as friend.

I am still on gab, which I also love. I have curated it to be the most ideal of places for me to spend time, eliminating what I don’t want to see (mainly strife and meanness) and seeing the beauty and kindness and humor and Christian content that I enjoy. My time there is some of the best of the day, every day!

I have started using my “twitter” account again as well. I started going back here to see the changes Elon has made, and why people were so critical of him and the platform. I have found that I like it better now than I ever have! (I have always used a different nickname there than everywhere else.)

I recently joined Truth Social, a move that surprised even me! I avoid anything political and news online (and everywhere else), and get the information I need from sources I choose rather than having it thrust in my face by a bunch of loose cannons with lots of opinions and very little actual fact. I assumed that TS would be similar but again, I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. And I’m still there. I like to occasionally check out the groups that I’ve joined, like groups about dogs, Christianity, nature, photography, recipes, memes, etc. I rarely even glance at the political stuff and found it very easy to avoid. So I stayed, though I don’t use it as often.

And of course I have loved Pinterest for many years! And I continue to look through that and save pins during some of my “down time”, just for enjoyment.

Finally, and foremost, is this site! Though it is not as “social” as I had originally intended (I get LOTS of activity, so I know people are using it even though very few leave comments or feedback) I am passionate about it and absolutely love working on it, finding content, and sharing all of the great stuff I find! I’m always trying to put up a variety of content and keep it positive so there will be something to make every visitor smile and be glad they came. While chia.owly.net has had some adjustments (no longer doing alt-texts for example, since it was time-consuming and I’ve received zero feedback that anyone was using it when I’ve asked, or changing the header links as needed) I try to keep that main page easy to read and use, and consistent for the most part. I spend more time working on my own site than on looking at all of the above platforms combined!

So that’s what has – and hasn’t – changed about Social Me, and what I’m doing these days with my social media/online time!