Short social media update

You may or may not have noticed that I've not posted on Twitter since last Friday, December 17. The reason is that I have been locked out, pending an appeal of their demand that I remove a tweet in which I implied that the US Constitution is a suicide pact. They claim that this constitutes promotion of suicide or self-harm, which is against their rules. I say "they claim", but the tweet was flagged mere minutes after it was posted, and my original appeal was rejected moments after I raised it, so I'm not sure whether any human was meaningfully involved in the decision. This has given me some time to reflect on my social media use.

Early this year I raised concerns about using platforms like Twitter, Facebook, etc, to hold thoughts and conversations about RPGs, or any topic, really, although I was being much less self-serving there. I figured that if I keep my long-form thoughts here, on this blog, which I am backing up so that I can preserve it, even if Blogspot decides to shut down or decides it no longer wants me here, that this information, at least, will remain less ephemeral.

However, I have to wonder whether letting Twitter guide my attention is a good idea at all. I do like the accounts I follow there, but I also find myself spending more and more time engaging in interactions that I'm not sure are healthy for me. Not to mention how many accounts I report as potentially fake, and how many tweets I genuinely think are harmful remain there despite my reports. For example, I reported an antisemitic "joke" a month ago, and it's still there at time of writing. I know I wasn't the only one outraged by it, either.

I am leaning towards deleting my "offending" tweet so that I can use my account again, then letting my followers know that I'm either leaving the platform or otherwise no longer going to engage with it, and urging them to follow me here or to email me. Facebook I keep mostly for friends and family overseas, and a few interest groups, so it's a bit more useful to me, although I've lowered my engagement with it, as well, in that I don't think I post there more than once every few weeks.

In case it hasn't been clear before, I do welcome feedback and comments on my posts. Unless I've made a very silly configuration mistake, you should be able to comment under the posts themselves, and there's a form for getting in touch if that's too public for you.

I have a few ideas for posts for the rest of the year during my break, but I also have to pack for my move, so I can't guarantee anything. If you've added me to your RSS reader, you'll know soon enough.