Conversations

Yesterday I went for a run and someone asked “Are people running or not?” and I answered yes. The person wanted to be added to the Whatscrapp group but I couldn’t add them because I have no privilieges within that group. I can’t post. I can’t share the group. I can vote “Of course I’m coming” but that’s all I can do.

The person asked, once she was added by the owner of the group, “Can anyone post?” and the answer was “nope” and she said “good, I don’t want too much noise.”

If I look at Binstagram and Threads, and other Facebook owned sites I notice that conversations are completely dead. I was also looking at Twitter (now X) and I was also struck by how few conversations are taking place. I barely see any conversations. I see people posting, but I see little sign of interaction.

As I look at Facebook, and Twitter, and the lack of conversation I come to the conclusion that we can now delete our accounts on both and lose nothing. Years ago, we would have been isolated, but not today.

Routine is extremely important. With routine the question is not “whether you can be bothered” but “I will do this.” You go from asking “if” to automatically assuming that on Wednesday morning you will ride, and sunday morning you will ride. If a ride is cancelled for A or B then you’re asking “if”, but you’re also making other plans.

This weekend, for example, I saw that it would rain today. I assumed that the ride would be cancelled so psychologically I shifted my plans. I went for a group raclette and when the meal was over I stayed for a digestif, and then another, and then we went out. In the end I got home at 3:56 or so, and I went to sleep at 5 in the morning. That’s both really late, and really early. If I had got up for the bike ride I would have had two hours of sleep.

A few days ago someone wrote something about chocolate croissants. I then wrote something about Chocolate easter bunnies. A third person then said “please don’t have conversations, there are hundreds of people reading this exchange”. This is on WhatsApp. WhatsApp is, or at least was, an IM client. For those of a certain age an IM client is a conversation app. It’s the type of app that includes AIM, ICQ, Messenger, Skype and many, many more apps. Its raison d’être is to encourage conversations.

Yesterday it happened again on Whatsapp. Someone said ‘avoid having too much chatter on this group, there are hundreds of people. When I see such messages it frustrates me because at its core Whatsapp is designed for people to have conversations. The idea that we would join Whatsapp chats, to speak very little, to me is absurd. Whatsapp is designed for instant messaging. This is not a cloister where we have taken a vow of silence. This is a social network.

People on FB have pigeon holed me as negative, and don’t understand why I am this way. The reality is that I believe the algorithms highlight when I am negative, rather than positive. I also think that there is a certain amount of bias against me. I post plenty of positive things but I think algorithms hide them or the subconscious does.

A Temporary Shift to Threads

Since women, who are mothers, and may never be alone for the rest of their lives think that I am too negative on FB I will take a network from that anti-social network, to experiment with threads.

Recently I was added into a Whatsapp group where people discuss things to do in Geneva as well as more interesting activities a drive from Geneva. I was given admin privilieges on Whatsapp to organise events. In connection to this I shared activity ideas, interesting videos and more related to the topic. Yesterday someone objected to how much I posted so I started a private chat to converse, and when that was done I deleted the post that had triggered him.

Recently I have been thinking more about trolling. I have been thinking about why, I, and others, appear so negative or toxic on social media. I believe that one reason for this is that algorithms drive conversations and popularity, rather than time devoted to social media, and conversationalism.

Return on Investment Then and Now

By this I mean that if I spent 20 hours on social media in 2006 or 2007 I would have spent 20 hours watching conversations between friends, and friends of friends. Today if I spend twenty hours on social media I may see three or four posts by friends, and hundreds from groups, and that are chosen by algorithms. The result is that the social circle that I built in 2006-2007 was a tight knit community of friends.

A few days ago I was asked once again why I wore two watches and I gave the usual answer of “this is my GPS watch and that is my Smartwatch”. People still fail to understand so I elaborate and that’s where I saw that blogging is useful.

When you write blog posts daily, for weeks, months, or even years in a row you get into the habit of elaborating on thoughts. Many years ago I thought that using Twitter made me short winded, maybe even succinct. With blogging I feel that the opposite is true. I don’t mean that it makes me long winded. I mean that it gets me to elaborate on ideas.

There is a case for reverting to web forums. Web forums are small communities of like minded people that form around topics, ideas, or ideals. They want to have conversations where you look at topics and sub topics, rather than following people. By having conversations on a smaller scale there is more waiting around for answers, but the connections should be more worthwhile.

Recently the ActivityPub plugin for Wordpress jumped to version 1.0.0 from version 0.0.something. In so doing I expected to find that two way conversations would be possible from wordpress to the Fediverse, and back from the Fediverse to WordPress and ClassicPRess.