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You should be on "Social Media" [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-01-08

In response to one or another question about stopping the use of Xitter embeds or improving/allowing the use of Bluesky or Mastodon embeds, I frequently see comments from Kossacks stating, with some bravado, that they are not and have never been on social media. I’m here to tell you that’s a mistake.

First, let’s move the elephant out of the room. There are some social media sites that are dumpster fires. The worst is the site formerly known as Twitter. Unfortunately, it’s still used by too many legitimate sources, so DK can’t yet divest of its postings (and some popular diarists continue to create posts that are essentially a series of embedded Xitter posts). However, for the average user, there’s no reason to post or use the app directly. I’ve already deleted the content of both of my accounts, and deleted one entirely. I will delete the other if I can, while still seeing what I need to of the coverage of Ukraine from quaoar and others (oh---just saw a great update in today’s piece from quaoar--Big development yesterday, folks — Bluesky posts will now embed at DKos, complete with photos and videos.). Facebook is similar. Having not opened Facebook since 2020, I deleted it yesterday after Zuck’s latest reprehensible actions.

But as we move into a landscape where the legacy media are less effective and have less reach, we need to consider what will replace them. Of course, there are national organizations like Propublica, and local news organizations, like Berkeleyside, that deserve your support, both as readers, and financially (they get mine). On top of that, much of the best and breaking news is found on the better social media sites. I’ll talk about two, Bluesky and Mastodon. Bluesky is newer, and more user friendly, and has gained millions of followers in the last months. Mastodon is more decentralized, a bit harder to navigate, but will be attractive to those who really want to avoid corporate influence. I hope someone with a bit more of a passion around the principles behind Mastodon will write a diary with a simple description and user guide.

Why do I think those Kossacks who proudly state their distain for and lack of accounts at social media sites are wrong, wrong, wrong? Simply put, the best of these sites will give you bite size pieces of what you get here at DK. And, you control what you see. Like pooties? You will have them in abundance! Prefer up to date info on what’s happening in Ukraine? It’s there. And let’s be clear what I’m advocating here—it’s not the social media of the ‘10s, where MySpace and later Facebook were all about knowing what’s up (see what I did there) with your friends and acquaintances. It’s about seeing news and opinion, and filtering out the trolls, RW thugs, and misinformation.

Because it’s gained the bigger user base, has a better discovery mechanism, and a more user-friendly interface, I’m going to focus on Bluesky.

How do you get what you want, but not what you don’t, at Bluesky? First, you choose who you follow. And if you have a particular interest, Bsky has made it easy, by allowing people to create what are called Starter Packs. These are curated lists of authors who reliably post on a topic. You can follow them all with a click of a button, or pick and choose among the posters.

Here’s an example. I’m very interested in a habitable planet in the future, so I do all I can related to Climate action and energy efficiency. Here’s a Starter Pack by Shreyas Sudhakar on a bunch of related topics.

I can follow some or all. And I’m pretty much assured that I won’t get RW talking points about drillbabydrill (though comment land is always a possible minefield, you can mute accounts that are offensive, and….they’re gone (to you)).

Also, some Kossacks have their own accounts on Bluesky. For example, writer emeritus Meteor Blades posts frequently.

So I ask social media skeptics…go and try it!

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