The Facebook Three Billion

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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.