I choose to look up (Credit: Lance Ulanoff)
Enough already
I’m tired of worrying about the fate of Twitter. I’m sure you’re tired of me talking about it. But it’s worth considering maybe one more time.
Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter and what may be a sudden rollout of a new Twitter verification system come just hours before we head to the polls to vote in one of the most momentous mid-terms in recent memory.
I can’t recall casting votes as important as these in the shadow of a literal insurrection. So, it seems, everything counts, Even what should be a rather inconsequential social media platform where we discuss the latest episode of The Voice, argue about when it’s too early to start singing Christmas songs, and still post cat GIFs.
Of course, we do far more than that on Twitter. If Musk is right about one thing, it is that Twitter is sort of a public square. It is where we hash out - loudly and sometimes without thought - big topics. But Musk’s concept of a Town square is even more of a free-for-all it seems where the guardrails of misinformation and hate might be removed or muddied by, in part, a verification process that might only verify that you have eight bucks a month to spend.
As I write this, I’ve been begging Elon Musk on Twitter for details about the new Blue Check system. Paying $8 will guarantee you a check and some cool Twitter features, but there are no details about how Twitter will verify identities. It did with the current Blue Check system.
As Twitter and Musk enact the plan, many of us, including me, will probably give up our blue checks. (Not gonna pay to verify I am who I am.) This is probably a terrible idea since Musk’s new plan will surely open the door to a raft of impersonators for all kinds of people.
More than a few people on Twitter, including actress Valerie Bertinelli, have, in protest, changed their Twitter handles to “Elon Musk.” I’m not ready to go that far. Of course, for the first time ever, someone tried impersonating me on Twitter. They grabbed my name, avatar, and all my profile art. It was a reminder that, once I lose my checkmark, it’ll be a way too easy for people to impersonate anyone on Twitter.
And this is all happening as we go to the polls and, maybe do research on candidates, the election process, and policies. Who knows what people will see on Twitter in the next 48 hours?
Maybe I’m wrong. Perhaps, everything will be just fine, but as virtually every character in Star Wars has said at least once, I have a bad feeling about this.
The art of being wrong
With Twitter spinning out of control, many are looking for viable alternatives, which has led to thousands (if not more) shambling over to Mastodon, a free, open-source Twitter-like platform that’s been around for almost six years.
I wrote about it, or to be more accurate, wrote it off in 2017, outlining six reasons the platform could not survive.
I was wrong
It’s alive and, if not thriving, a relatively vibrant platform that, unfortunately, few who are used to Twitter’s dead-simple system, can quite figure out.
Instead of one big system, there are many services (it’s a bit like Discord, in that way). They are all supposed to interconnect so you don’t need to worry about which server you’re on, but that doesn’t always work.
Back in 2017, no one could find me on Mastodon. Now they can find me but have trouble finding the conversations.
Perhaps because there’s really no advertising on the platform, the platform looks almost exactly the same as when I first joined, and that’s not a good thing.
I have nothing against Mastodon and happily admit I was wrong about its survival, but I still don’t think it has much of a chance of replacing Twitter, not unless it consolidates its servers, simplifies the system, and attracts more celebrities, officials, and media types to the platform.
It’s time
With this holiday season comes a sense of urgency I have not seen before. Online and brick-and-mortar stores flipped the switch to Christmas and the Holidays at midnight on Nov. 1 and literal Christmas trees and other decorations popped up everywhere. At the same time, I sense that consumers are scrambling to go right along with the early start to the holiday buying race. Why? Whatever money they have right now is, I think they believe, unlikely to last for long. So, buy your gifts now.
In a way, it’s a perfect convergence of retailers’ need to make money and consumers’ need to save as much as possible. Early deals and sales and early shopping.
By the time Black Friday shows up at the end of this month, many people may be all-bought out. I wonder if we’ll see even better gadget deals (the ones I most care about) to try and draw consumers back in since they’ll have another 25 days or so of shopping before we finally unwrap those presents.
Day Light Saving
Remember when we used to run around our house changing a dozen clocks to mark the start of Daylight Saving. Now, the majority of our timekeepers connect to the internet. Even major appliances could be connected and properly time synchronized. In my house, I changed exactly two clocks.
I kind of miss the old process because I used to cheat and not change one or two clocks to effort to get more done earlier. Then I’d look at a correct clock and feel as if I were suddenly gifted a fresh hour.
As it is, I’m sort of over Day Light Saving and the end of it in the spring. Let’s choose a clock and stick to it year-round.
That’s all for now.
Take care of each other