Ghosting Socials

I'm working on the basis that anyone genuinely interested in what I'm working on will already be following along on my Patreon or Ko-Fi, given they both offer free support options, which has freed up my social media guilt about not posting much to the wider platforms. I am reaching the people that matter, so thank you for reading this 🫶

I am finding the world a disturbing place at present. With the elections bringing out the worst versions of usually intelligent people, I'm finding places such as X, Facebook, and Instagram highly toxic environments. It's not good for my own view of the world and so I choose to remove myself from it. I trust that if anything globally significant happens (that will actually affect my day to day life), then someone in the know will text me about it. Otherwise, I'm just going to focus on my work and and go about my life.

I am lucky to have, at the time of writing, spent almost half my life without mobile phones, social media, the internet etc. I went through my teens blissfully disconnected and it suited me. I enjoyed those few years where texting was a thing, but mobile internet wasn't. When you had to go and sit at an actual desk, patiently waiting for someone else in the house to hang up their phone call so you could get the dial up internet whirring and squealing... all in order to see if you had received an email. Having the technology, but not being dominated by it, was the best time for me. That said, I have enjoyed building up social networks and interacting with new people across the world until relatively recently. It seems like social media has turned from a genuinely 'social' experience, to something now only useful for commercial gain or political propaganda. Having enjoyed using it to build an online business in the past, I can't really complain at using it for commercial reasons, but it has developed into something more of a monster in recent years. I find the style of advertising jarring on the senses, and honestly, makes me feel old! This is why I'm trying to find a better balance for myself. I need to use it to connect with those that take an interest my project and who may wish to support it, but I don't really want to find myself absorbing the negativity it exudes.

Hopefully by making my own platforms as interesting as possible I can stay connected with the friends I've made so far, without having to see the complete intellectual collapse of society as we know it. At the moment the smaller platforms such as Bluesky and Threads are new enough to have, thus far, not come up on the radar of the 'bots and boobies' haunting the likes of X or Insta. I am experimenting with using these in favour of the bigger ones for those that still like to see my adventures in their feeds. On Bluesky I am under the username follywoodfae and on Threads I have profiles mirroring my insta profiles under NormaExplores and JeevarArchive. Do join me there if you're signed up. As I say at the top though, my focus is on my Patreon and Ko-Fi platforms, which link to the whole world of Norma Explores via my website and gazetteer.

www.normaexplores.com you can find links to this blog and supporter platforms, so please bookmark the site!

Thank you for reading, and thank you to those that noticed my absence online 🙏

Rosie xx