I would find it interesting to know how many hours I have spent on Facebook in the past 4.5 years. I do not regret this effort and did it out of a personal sense of duty whether justified or not. I felt a need to argue the values I hold in what I hope was a rational and factually based approach. I know my civility slipped from time to time, but I do have limits. My approach was to present my views linked to credible sources and to take the time to write rather than simply forward what others have generated or said. Others may have represented what I feel, but forwarding without personal effort does not signal commitment.
Anyway, I intend to post far less content on Facebook. When I do, I would guess my posts will focus on issues and policies rather than what I consider the flawed values and selfishness of leadership. I miss discussing policy matters - equity, health care, education, climate decline, global awareness, and even net neutrality.
I have issues with Facebook, but I have spent so much time on this platform because of the presence of so many other people. If you have a message you want heard, you must go where the people are. The lack of participation in other social media outlets is a problem simply because monopolies limit innovation and offer the opportunity for manipulation. A competitive environment fights these limitations. Beyond these general objections, I see Facebook flawed by a double whammy. Individuals select those they follow AND Facebook applies the algorithmic selection of content to feed existing biases. Of the most common social media services, Twitter does not shape the sharing of the content shared by those selected.
My preference would be for those wanting to share online to operate a personal blog and follow the blogs of others using RSS. This takes a little more work and I happen to think the commitment required is a good thing - it is a test of commitment. However, I have also been exploring alternate social media platforms as what I see as a professional responsibility. I have been cross-posting some blog content to learn about these alternatives and to offer content to build up the material these platforms can offer. My initial reaction has been that these platforms struggle to create the network necessary to reach the level necessary to motivate investment - meaning you have to see yourself contributing in the hope the future may bring benefits.
Anyway, here are some options I urge others to try for at least six months or so. Take the same attitude I have described - work to build up the population and the body of content necessary to reach critical mass.
The following order is kind of ranked, but you should explore enough to make your own decisions.
Diaspora - this is a federated group that consists of multiple points of contact that share content as a public feed
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