Juggling

I have always had excellent hand-eye coordination but I could never juggle.

I can throw two balls in the air, with one hand, catching one at a time, but if you add a third element, I get lost. I can't hold concentration, and in no time all three balls come crashing to the floor.

I wonder if the same holds true for social media.

When I left Twitter, I wasn't sure of where to go but I learned that some of my peeps had moved to a site called Mastodon, and so I followed. Joining this Federated, multi-instance platform seemed a bit tricky at first, but I got the hang of it. I reconnected with some of my old Twitter friends, who also jumped ship, and made virtual friends with new people.

It didn't seem as robust as the Twitter of old—I can't schedule a post and I still haven't got the knack of sending private, direct messages—but it allowed me to share thoughts and read posts of my connections. About two years after joining Mastodon, I still use it daily.

And then, Threads came along.

Out of curiosity, I opened an account on this Meta-run platform and was pleased to learn that even more of my old Twitter folk had also joined. While there are still people with whom I've lost touch, I was connected to so many of the people I had missed since I had left Twitter.

I left Twitter as soon as Elon Musk acquired it. There was no hesitation. I didn't want to have any association with a childish, idiotic billionaire. Joining Mastodon seemed to be a breath of fresh air.

When I joined Threads, I wasn't keen on being a part of a Meta platform. I quit Facebook because it was turning into an ad-riddled dumping ground, with my feed full of people I didn't follow and with whom I held no interest.

I had and maintained my Instagram account, which I have had since before Meta acquired it, and for the most part, even today it's manageable. I mostly receive ads from companies that I shop anyway, and I can mute suggested people for a month, which I do regularly.

But then I had heard that Meta had endorsed and supported the Orange Felon. And I was not happy.

Some of my fellow folks on Threads were also upset with Meta and I started hearing more talk about another social-media platform, Bluesky. (Side note: as soon as I first typed the name of this platform, I started pronouncing it blues-key. It might stick.)

So, the other night, I created an account and immediately liked the interface. I mean, it's a lot like Threads and even Twitter of old, but not as clunky as Mastodon. And within a couple of minutes of having the account, I had a follower: someone whose posts seemed in line with my interests, and so I followed him back.

And I've found a lot of my peeps from Threads were also here.

As I said at the start of this post, I'm not good at juggling. Already, I find it a bit of work to maintain two social-media accounts. Juggling three will be a lot.

Not to mention that I still use Instagram regularly; though now, I'm considering cutting ties with it after more than 14 years and 4,430 posts.

Ideally, I'd like to have one social-media account but I don't want to keep hopping from platform to platform. I don't care to have a nomadic online presence.

What about you?