How was your day on Monday? Did you get a lot of work done? Was your day less stressful or moreso?
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp were all down. I’d just gotten online and finished wishing everyone on FB a happy birthday, when FB disappeared. Literally. It was weird. I immediately went to Twitter to ask if it was just me, and found out that no, the whole conglomeration of Zuckerberg owned apps were out of commission.
Why? Well, the theories abound, but the most striking suggestion was that former FB data scientist Frances Haugen went on 60 Minutes and exposed the deregulation of misinformation stop-gaps, saying they perpetrated and encouraged the real world problems of the Jan. 6th Insurrection and the military genocide in Myanmar.
Then Facebook shut down.
Hmm, that’s kinda damning evidence, isn’t it? Of course, it could be just a coincidence and a hacker group like Anonymous took it down, also a possibility, but that isn’t going around at all.
One thing that did become clear is that anyone depending on Facebook for promotion or website usage got screwed when it shut down. Hopefully, they had a Twitter account, but if not, it’s a real loss.
I have a few readers tell me that they spend too much time on Facebook as it is, so going to other platforms is too much. I hear you. But diversifying is important and this shut down is an excellent example of why.
I know blogs seem “old-school” along with newsletters, but as an author, it’s really the only ways I can make sure you see what’s going on in my life and writing. Patreon is considered another type of blog as well as Ko-Fi, and in those places, you’ll get exclusives that won’t show up on this blog.
I know Facebook is easy – everyone and everything is right there – but it’s not a platform I can control and I’m a FB Jail hardcore veteran having being banned for their capricious and uneven “community standards” violations.
But I can control my blog, Patreon, Ko-Fi, and my newsletter. And the newsletter and Patreon notifications come straight to your email inbox. So if you’ve missed me and the few things I’ve got going on (which is a lot this month), sign up for my newsletter, Patreon, and watch this blog. There’s plenty coming and you won’t want to miss it. Sign up today.
