Backing off from Social Media

I am growing disenchanted with social media. It's as though a slurry-pit wall has been breached and an increasingly large flow of shit is squelching across our consciousness.

I occasionally stray onto Instagram and I have a foothold on Bluesky as @suemillard.bsky.social but I left TwiXer some time ago.

I remain on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/sue.millard.9/ because of some nice people I know there and because I manage a couple of Pages for other purposes like the Fell Pony Society.

While I have a fairly good control of what I see on FB I'm also aware of an increase in posts and reactions by the stupid and the uninformed, the drunk or overmedicated, and the racists and xenophobes who infest the place. 

It certainly seems that FB has stopped employing real people to manage the billions of its users or fact checking their posts except with the blunt instrument of artificial intelligence.

• Tinfoil hatters informed only by YouTube videos
  
• claim cancer is a parasite that can be expelled by animal wormers
• claim vaccinations are more dangerous than the diseases they prevent 
• Chemtrail conspiracy theorists
• any image of the sky that includes an aircraft or an unusual cloud formation will bring them out in force 
  
• Creationist nutjobs 
• any image of geological formations will have them claiming that it was done by "the flood"
• deny the scientifically discovered timespan of the earth's existence and substitute the genealogical calculations of Bishop Ussher in the 17th century
  
• Fundamentalists (of several flavours of religion)
  
• insist that atheism or agnosticism are beliefs and are bitterly opposed to them 
• deny the theory of evolution, which is "Darwinist"
• any image of primates will set them off
• they have no idea that in science the word "theory" does not mean a "hypothesis" 
• The visually ignorant 
• coo and praise "god" for images produced by artificial intelligence
• The verbally ignorant 
• can't tell the difference between AI generated text and genuine human thought 
• or push their AI generated "poetry" across literary pages until - eventually - the admins get sick of them and use the ban hammer
  
• The red-hat brigade in America 
• think Trump can do no wrong and are bitterly opposed to any suggestion otherwise
  
• And they ALL get mad and start slinging insults if you suggest their ideas are part of the squelching shit mentioned earlier.

Re the last bullet point - I'm not well up in American politics or the mechanisms of the USA government but even I can smell an attempted coup there. Trump and his rich, irresponsible mates tear through the Constitution and government structures, issuing Executive Orders which are not laws but are forced through at speed without the agreement of Congress. Isn't it time for Britain to give up any idea of a "special relationship"  with a country that's being deconstructed for the benefit of an incredibly rich few? Isn't it risky for us to go on depending on our increasingly unhinged and abusive Uncle Sam? Or are we just as ignorant as the slurry on social media suggests?

Incredibly depressing.

So here I am, scraping the rust off the blog where at least I can control what gets posted. 

 

Hacking through FaceOff (sorry, -Book)

There are lots of Like-Fests happening on Facebook and Twitter this autumn, so I'm having to develop a strategy for getting the most out of their potential - and also to stave off potential irritations.

The negatives

First, I've decided I won't Friend people from one of these virtual Facebook love-ins. I'm not that promiscuous. So, you need to make an author page or a business page that I can Like. Occasionally if people send a private message and I find their interests are similar to mine I will Friend them or Follow on Twitter. Otherwise, no.

Second, when I read your page profile -- or whatever you like to call the text that will appear automatically next to the URL link to your Facebook page -- I will filter you out if any of the following conditions are true:

•     You can't spell, or you deliberately spell in an arbitrary or Txt Spk manner.
•     Your sentences don't make sense or you have written typos such as "which" for "while" and not bothered to correct them.
•     You start with the words "I was born..." and continue with personal, family and geographical history that should be on your personal page. 
•     Your chosen writing themes are erotica, same-sex romance/erotica, paranormal, vampire/werewolf fantasy, politics, religion, gossip/celebrities, personal angst (including some poetry), horror or sci fi. 
•     Your writing reveals you to be a sloppy-thinking, careless, inexpert or poor storyteller. 

Any of these things mean that I will not Like your page.

You may connect with lots of other people who will Like your page for the above points, but these, specifically, are not my bag. Probably the people who enjoy my writing won't follow you, and I suspect the reverse may also be true, so why should we exchange Likes in a pointless manner?

The positives

I will usually Like or Follow authors of non-fiction, because they have to do their homework thoroughly before they get going and they can't rely on glitz to carry them through. I do like an expert.

In fiction, I will Like or Follow writers of novels, short stories,  historical fiction (and I don't exclude romance unless it is modern chick lit in petticoats and breeches), literary fiction, most (but not all) equine, canine, feline or wildlife topics, adventure, humour, well crafted crime / thrillers and well crafted thought-provoking poetry. I also Like or Follow artists, if I like the images they supply of their work. Oh, and editing and proofing services.

Did I mention that I like an expert?

This discrimination is only meant to preserve my sanity. It's nothing personal.

Now, please excuse me while I go and do some writing.

---

Sue Millard's books almost all have a rural or equestrian background and can be found on her web site, http://www.jackdawebooks.co.uk

Her poetry pamphlet "Ash Tree" was published in August 2013 by Prole Books.