How to feel safe participating in online communities
Active participating in online communities certainly isn’t for everyone, and it’s definitely important to take care of yourself and do what’s comfortable for you. But I’m going to share my lil’ story, since I noticed a lot of “Long Time Reader, First Time Commenter” comments on that post about the reader survey. This may not be helpful for anybody, but I thought I’d put it out there in case somebody needed to hear it.
Social Media Diet: Two years later, it’s still hard
Ok, it’s been two years since I committed Facebook social suicide, and a year since I bailed on Instagram. There was a while there where it was getting easier and easier to socially ignore Facebook. Yes, I have to be there for work, but I just didn’t miss it, socially.
Over the past few months though, I’ve started missing it. Part of it is realizing that even my husband uses Facebook constantly. My staff, my friends, my readers, my own spouse: all use Facebook all day, every day. My friends in LA? Facebook. My friends in Seattle? Facebook. My friends from Seattle who move away? Facebook.
Social Media Diet: Recognizing Instagram as a rat lever
I committed Facebook social suicide last year, and now I’ve decided to officially make the switch from Instagram back to Flickr. I have very strong feels about Flickr, and have a sense of needing to give it one last chance. And if I’m going to abandon it, it’s NOT going to be for Instagram. I’m also embarrassed at how shitty my photography has gotten over the six months I’ve been using Instagram. I’m also trying to recognize and remove the “rat levers” in my digital life…
Social Media Diet: How I committed Facebook social suicide
A reader caught wind of the fact that I socially bailed on Facebook in 2011, and asked me to share the story. Conveniently, I documented the process on my personal blog. I’ll be sharing the three posts this week, as part of a series called Social Media Diet.
What happens when your personal photos go viral and you get attacked online?
We’ve talked about what happens when your wedding goes viral and people hate it. But what happens when your personal photos go viral and people seemingly hate YOU. Offbeat Empire reader Barbara Reggio left this insightful comment on our Offbeat Bride post…
The internet, the self, the furries, and you: we need to all watch this presentation so we can talk about it
In September, I went to a conference down in Portland called XOXO Festival. One speaker named Mike Rugnetta gave a talk called Disintermediation of Self. In it, Mike poked deep into the bowels of social psychology of both identity development, and community development on the internet. This talk was SO up my alley. Like, custom-catered to the things I like to think about. And with this talk, Mike’s basically stared deep into the deepest, weirdest parts of the Offbeat Empire readership’s minds. HE KNOWS, you guys. HE KNOWS. You need to watch this talk, and we need to talk about it.
Stop hate-reading: save your soul with a browser-based URL blocker
You know you do it. You have those URLs that you save in your bookmarks for the websites you hate. You know you shouldn’t do it. You know your hate-reading actually supports the websites you loathe… but fuck. It’s so hard! Self-control, man. I don’t have it. Do you?
How do you cope after a Craigslist scam?
My partner and I sort-of fell for a Craigslist scam. The logistical next steps are covered (we made complaints to Craigslist, the Internet Crime Complaints website, and the FTC; we’re putting fraud alerts on our credit reports). But how do you cope emotionally after being scammed?