The Facebook Three Billion
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The Facebook Three Billion

Byrichard

Over the last two or three days I have played with the idea of returning to Facebook. There are several reasons for this. The first reason is that Facebook has three billion people and you can find people local to you, which is a huge plus. The second reason is that with Facebook we can find activity based communities for hiking, climbing, cycling and more. We’re talking online but with local communities it becomes easier to meet people in person, rather than remaining isolated online.


The other reason is that Twitter is no longer a welcoming place for ordinary people who support diversity and the flow of information, rather than disinformation. Twitter has become a shadow of it’s former self.


In theory the Fediverse and Mastodon are a great alternative to Twitter but in my experience over a period of months I have been trolled several times, and I see that those who are opinionated are misinformed people who have fallen victim to disinformation. I would enjoy Mastodon if it wasn’t filled with everything that I tried to flee, by leaving Twitter.


No Desire to Meet in Person


Another reason for wanting to leave the Fediverse for Facebook is that three to five times, in recent months, or even years people, on Twitter, and the Fedivere, have said that they are not looking to meet people from Mastodon or Twitter, in person. I don’t see the value of a social network where we do not want to meet people in person, eventually.


Furtive Trust in Facebook


I am still weary of Facebook. I have been trolled on Facebook too, which is why I dumped the network during the peak of lock down. I couldn’t deal with being trolled online, whilst being lonely in the physical world.


Facebook is still owned and controlled by the same people. I don’t trust these people to behave morally, and put their users first, rather than capital and political manipulation.


Current Impressions


As I spent time on Facebook this week I noticed that there is a photo group filled with people who know how to take proper pictures, rather than Instagram style kitsch. I also think that with three billion people plenty of them are mid to late adopters, otherwise referred to as “normal people”. By normal people I mean non-geeks with standard lives. By standard lives I mean that they can turn on most sitcoms and it relates to their lives.


If I find a group of local hikers, local via ferrata people, and cyclists then I can dump the Fediverse and other platforms and revert to Facebook.


And Finally


If I am now toying with the idea of reverting to Facebook it is not because Facebook has improved, but that Twitter has ceased to exist, and alternatives such as the Fediverse are not yet, as healthy as I would like and communities like BlueSky are still not the type of community that I want to be part of.


It’s fun to be part of new online communities, but those that are looking forward, to become something new, rather than nostlagic for a different age. Earlier this morning I saw a post about millenials being nostalgic for the golden age of social media, as I am. I don’t think that age will come back. I think now is the time to get back to the centre of the bell curve, back to where ordinary non geeks are, to find a potentially healthy community, or community of communities.


There is a chance that what I wanted with Twitter, Instagram and more, now exists on Facebook, if I devote enough time to find an online community that also spends time meeting offline.

Human – A Yann Arthus-Bertrand documentary

Byrichard

The French have an interesting history of documentary film. Jean Rouch explored social questions with his film Chronique d’un été, a revolutionary film at the time because of the tech that they used. The Cinéma Eclair and crystal sound sync. A few decades later Yann Arthus-Bertrand is following in Jean Rouch’s footsteps with a net cast far wider. Instead of Paris and France we see interviews with people from around the world.

The documentary is split in to volumes and each volume is divided in to sections. At the beginning of each section you have footage showing the diversity of landscapes in which people live as well as the people themselves. You see images of a caravan on a dune, images of a river delta, a fishing boat being unloaded.

People are answering questions about love, abuse, work and more. You feel compassion for these people because they stare straight in to the camera and they are speaking to us, who are in the audience. We feel compassion for these people, we are moved to laughter by some and to tears by others. There are some beautiful images created by what the people say.

One person speaks about buying things. He says that we don’t buy things with money but that we buy them with time. That is a beautiful and more accurate image than we are used to. I love gadgets and sports so I often think of how long an investment will take to offset. I used to think “in a week” I will have covered the expense.

Another image painted by words that I like is that of wealth and comfort. When you are poor the river is empty and so every stone is a challenge. With wealth you do not need to worry about the stones because the river is full.

This is an observational documentary, typical of the cinéma verité movement and the French and German school of documentary. We are not told what to feel or think. We are presented with evidence and we are to draw our own conclusions. It can be perceived as slow and dull by some and beautiful by others.

It brings us to the “All Seeing Eye” that Vertov discussed at the very birth of the documentary genre. His ideal was to have cameras that would film and document “life unawares” as they went about their daily lives. In so doing the cinema was an observer, without interacting. Of course these are just interviews so there is some interaction between the camera operator and the talent on screen. They are meant to speak from the heart, without censor. They were meant to give us an honest representation of who they are and how they feel. It gives us a serious glimpse in to the lives of others.

it makes me think of the interviews I have listened to, of the stories I have heard told when I was logging and transcribing footage for a video archive. Some of the things people speak about are timeless and others are contemporary. With this documentary record of people’s thoughts and emotions so a moment in time is preserved. I have yet to watch the next volumes and will do so in the evenings. I recommend you take the time to watch at least part of these documentaries.