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I have loved social media for years. I have been able to stay connected with old friends and make new ones. I have friends in places I have never been, thanks to the magic of social media. But lately the platforms have become more frustrating.
First, Facebook’s bots have flagged a few of my comments for violating community guidelines, or deceptively trying to get likes and follows. I’m not sure how to avoid this problem unless I stop commenting altogether, because all I did was answer people’s questions or congratulate them on a book launch. Those warnings all came with threats of restricting my account, whatever that might mean in reality. (As for trying to get likes and follows, that’s funny because I’ve never tried to do that deceptively or otherwise. If you like what I post, follow along; if not, that’s okay too. Do what’s best for you.)
The second problem is that all the platforms to varying degrees have made it harder to see posts from my friends and far too easy to see things I have no interest in. That also means that people who are interested in my content are less likely to see it too.
Third, and this is what has confirmed my choice to share less on social media, these platforms have no respect for intellectual property. While my congratulatory posts have been restricted, scammers have been able to take whatever they want, use it to deceive people, and not be seen as violating community guidelines. But now the platforms themselves are doing the same. They are taking all of our content to train their AI, so their AI can share all of our knowledge as their own.
What I have chosen to do is to remain on social media to stay connected to all the wonderful people I have met. But I will be using email to share most of my content. I will still share the basics on social media, but anything extra–origins of expressions, memory tricks, personal stories–will only go to my email subscribers from now on.
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