This year I took more steps towards going “Off-Grid” for social networking.
What I’ve done
- I set up a new blog on https://blog.joshledgard.com using Micro.Blog. This is now the source of my online self.
- I deleted (or tried to… Facebook is making this hard) most of my content on Facebook after downloading all my images and videos. I still need an account there for managing some business stuff & to stay in touch with some friends.
- I’ll no longer be posting personal content on Facebook or Instagram. I had already slowed my posting dramatically a few years ago.
- I’ve already had an iCloud photo-sharing solution for family members.
- Setup a Mastadon account mstdn.social/@joshledg…
- Started posting to my blog that does cross-post to Twitter & Mastadon.
Why?
I’ve always had mixed feelings about “Big Social” owning the content I posted there. Yes, they make it easy for people to follow you, but the trade-off is that you don’t really own or control your content. They choose how and when to display it in the feed, monetize it, and train AI models that we don’t get to really benefit from. It’s always made me hesitant to trust them.
Here are a couple of small examples…
I would cross-post this feed to Facebook… but Facebook silently killed off posting from outside apps for individuals. Not for businesses. There is no technical reason for it other than to ensure the eyeballs are ALWAYS trained on the app.
This week Twitter seems to have decided to kill off 3rd party clients for posting OR reading to the network. They also want to lock you in.
They want you locked into their feed, their algorithm, and their monetization strategy and hope that the easy distribution to friends makes it worth it to you. But they choose what to amplify or hide behind the scenes.
Also this. There’s a lot more but this is a recent list.
It just feels icky.
I pay to own the content now
Micro.Blog is an excellent mix of allowing micro-content, full posts like this one, photos, and even a video podcast if I wanted… all from the same feed. It’s a good catch-all solution with a small ecosystem of apps and a way to back up my content automatically.
There’s even a way for some family and friends, who want, to subscribe to email updates once/week where they can skim highlights. I think my dad subscribes. :) There’s even an RSS feed if you are so inclined.
I feel free
I can post any type of content I’d like.
I don’t worry about public or private. Private content is for family shares, friends, and text messaging, and I just know if I post here, it’s open to anyone.
I’m already getting more engagement with a much more limited follower count on Mastadon.
I view Twitter and Mastadon feeds as my comment reply feed. I’ve been through hosting comments before, and I just don’t need to moderate or see them on my own site.
I’ll still browse other social networks to stay up to date and comment where appropriate.
I can’t say off-grid living is for everyone, and that’s OK. Big social networks will come and go but we’ll all still be here and it’s nice to have a quiet little corner of the internet to myself.
