A few days ago I took the social media plunge into the pleasant waters of Bluesky, having become increasingly disillusioned with X (formerly known as Twitter).
After Elon Musk bought Twitter and almost instantly renamed it X, because that's his favorite letter, I found this irritating, but not enough to make me leave X. The positives seemed to outweigh the negatives.
I use Twitter, X, and now Bluesky for the enjoyment I get from following quality observers of our local, state, and national political scenery. They're up to date on what's going on. I learn a lot from the links they share, along with their own commentary on current events.
After I wake up, I like to see what those I follow are viewing as the day's most important news. Because my list of follows is strongly biased toward Democrats and progressives, they resonate with my own similar political leaning.
Though I've never met any of them, they come to seem like friends of a sort. Each has their own unique style and area of expertise.
Though for months I've been hearing talk on X about people leaving for other similar platforms like Threads and Bluesky, after signing up for Threads and then ignoring it, I'd decided that I'd stick with X for the time being.
Then came Elon Musk's full-bore support for Trump. Since I have followed Musk on Twitter and then X because I admire what he's done with Tesla and SpaceX (I'm a longtime Starlink customer), I was aware of how different his recent posts on X were from the Elon Musk posts before he became a big Trump supporter.
Those new posts were full of lies. Then came his efforts to get Trump elected. Now Trump has given Musk the job of figuring out ways to make the federal government more efficient through a Department of Government Efficiency -- DOGE, which not coincidentally is the name of a crypto currency, Dogecoin, that Musk is heavily invested in.
The conflicts of interest Musk has are breathtaking. SpaceX and Tesla benefit mightily from government programs, yet there's no indication that Musk is going to take steps to make sure that his DOGE recommendations on where to cut government spending aren't in line with what enriches Musk.
So along with many other users of X, I've decided to wean myself off of Musk's social media plaything in favor of Bluesky, a haven for people who are fed up with the MAGA craziness X has become. The ads on X are equally annoying, as Musk has taken away the ability to block specific ads. So far, Bluesky doesn't have ads.
I kept my X username when I signed up for Bluesky: OregonBrian. Many of the people and organizations I follow on X aren't on Bluesky, but quite a few are. Currently I follow 59 Bluesky users. I had 701 followers on X; now I have 9 on Bluesky. I've invited my followers to join me on Bluesky, but obviously most haven't done this.
But since I'm much more interested in reading the posts of other people and organizations than sharing my own posts, which usually are just links to a blog post that I write each night, I'm fine with being almost follower'less on Bluesky.
It feels great to be out of the clutches of Elon Musk's X, though I'm still on X for a while longer. Blue Sky has the look and feel of X without the annoyances. Give it a try. Bluesky has over 20 million users now, a big jump from before the election. It isn't difficult to find people and organizations to follow on virtually any topic.
Comments