A trouble I’ve been having when thinking of joining new social media apps is, what do I want to connect with people about?

Any child of the 1980s will remember at least one sick day spent under a blanket, in front of the (very boxy) television, watching ‘Murder, She Wrote.’ The Kelley House Museum in Mendocino is holding walking tours and a festival in celebration of the show:
www.kqed.org/arts/1397072...

How do we have fun and build connection online in a world of influencers and virality? Can we share “play” in these public forums? Memes that become in-jokes, ticktock dances how do we design for these interactions?

The problem with platforms that prioritize virality and public posting is that we all become public intellectuals and pundits screaming into the void rather than a community of friends sharing connection and solace.

I have always been good a curating my Facebook feed but it has felt like a battle with the platform, my efforts to connect with people over social media or through events created here have been continuously undercut, many of the features that were most meaningful to me have been sunsetted.

It is so frustrating to have something that is so important to me controlled by people who don’t care about my use case.

No platform has given me what Facebook did. I miss having a place to see my friends be hilarious and talk about their emotional health. I miss feeling in touch with the many people I’ve had strong emotional bonds who am no longer physically near. I miss feeling like I have a pulse on my community.

I’m on this platform this week because of the Meta boycott. I never got into Twitter but that seems like the most replicated platform and I’m still struggling to find anything that fills the niche that Facebook did at its best.