Chirp Chirp
~inhales .. exhales~
so..
i'm back on Twitter.. 😞
towards the end of last year, i made a focused decision to go about getting off and deleting as many accounts as possible on any and, if possible, all BigTech platforms - by the end of the year, i was off and/or inactive on all of them.. yaaay! and the search for alternatives was already well underway with a few promising options identified such as Mastodon.
it's been a couple of months since then, around eight i think, and it's been great so far... well, except for one thing..
see..
it's really challenging coming across Kenyans, content that's on Kenya(and Africa in general) on the Fedi and i know there are many reasons for this and i am in no way blaming my people..
i mean, it's not a simple task to just get up and move your whole digital presence, some who have had it for over a decade, and begin again on, for example, Mastodon - which is a great alternative but still a different platform from Twitter and its wasteland of toxicity and algorithms..
also there's the other simple fact that is: everyone and everything you know is already there where you are.
that simple convenience hits home hard AF and no amount of convincing will beat that point for so many people and in the end, that's what these platforms succeed at the most - convenience, which they are really fucking good at.
also i've read accounts of how Mastodon and the Fedi aren't designed nor moderated with everyone in mind, especially if you're of colour or from the global majority as it's very Euro-centric in many ways - this of course has reduced the voices and participation of black, brown, asian and the global majority.
how this has impacted Kenyans in particular i am not yet sure but i wouldn't be surprised if it was/is a factor and i know there are definitely more reasons and factors at play that i'm still unaware of but its just like... uuugghhhh..
the whole situation is just really frustrating.. 😑
and here's the other thing:
at first i thought "yeah, fuck them BigTech bros" etc as i almost completely removed myself from their platforms, but as time went by i began to realise something - siloing myself makes no sense if i'm also looking to engage and interact with a group that isn't really active/on the Fedi..
that hit home hard as fuck weh.. 😅
the frustration is real because i don't know what else, about this, i could do but i guess i'mma just have to take it a day at a time until another path reveals itself.. hopefully..
that being said - fuck Elon and his fascist tech.. mavii ya kuku, nkt!
~ 🐨
come along with me and the butterflies and bees - Ashley Eriksson