Threads: Everybody else is doing it so why can't I?

So I downloaded Threads. Considering how long it took me to get on twitter, it is a miracle I followed my digital consultant's advice (Hello Patrick!) and downloaded the app. The transition between Instagram and Threads is seamless - hell it even copies your bio information and you log in with the same password.

Apparently so far 50 million people already downloaded the app, so it's not like am tech's next frontier or anything, and well, Elon Musk who now owns Twitter is threatening to sue while people in Europe still cannot get it for legal reasons (mainly that Meta - the parent company seems to share your info and tracks you or whatever. Good luck tracking me, I no longer have a bank card so you cannot sell me anything at this point!). 

Of course, on the downside every other influencer is there already and the app is inundated with info and for some reason they decided that I needed to follow Karen Wazen - their algorithm really needs turning, trust me - who (gasp!) is already there. Now threads has no hashtags mind you, but offers 500 characters in text and much like Facebook it immediately shows the image accompanying the link you are posting. Apart from the "bio" thingy and stories, one could not place an active link in the instagram text. So now people on Instagram can - like those who are on Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter, enjoy my blog musings as well.

Perhaps though Mrs. Wazen would be a better fit for them.

Yes, I still "use" Twitter, and no, it means nothing.

Image tweeted by Elon Musk (source)

Ah Twitter!

Ever since Mr. Musk himself bought it for 44 Billion, it seems everyone is up in arms about it. Moderation is no longer a thing, the ethics team has been gutted with layoffs, the app will charge for blue check badges, advertisers reigning in ad spend, this, that... But- to the great chagrin of my digital consultant (hello Patrick!) - this actually implies that people have been using it the way it "ought to be" used.

Not so for me.

Let's recap - my private Facebook profile has zero friends, it's just a ghost to be able to manage my official page there, a page basically dedicated to copy-pasting links of such articles as this one. On Twitter I follow no one, so much that one time I was with my said digital consultant and a few other people and he said "tell them, tell them how you use social media" as if I was a wonder boy to be exhibited (the way I use social media is simply by typing everyone's link once in a while to see if there is anything interesting).

On Instagram, I make sure never to follow more than 50 accounts and periodically purge to remain near that number. I admit that during the pandemic I did a few "purchases" from outlet/resale stores pay-on-delivery exhibiting there for the lack of being able to go out to stores - which again is something I do not do often anyhow. Lately I have been lukewarm about the whole Instagram thingy truth be told. Somehow the whole app became boring.

No I have no Tiktok. 

Oh, whatsapp? 

Welcome to the 15 numbers including house help, taxi driver, etc.... stored on my phone. I only speak (meaning write) to a very small number of people. 

But all this has been good for my mental health mind you. I do what I do the way I do it, I do not preach anyone to do the same, at this point I realize each one of us has his own needs or wants from this digital experience. 

So yes, I still "use" Twitter, and no, it means nothing.

How LinkedIn became a facebook/Instagram hybrid

Artwork by Tarek Chemaly from the series "Tanaklogia"

LinkedIn used to be certainly interesting. Seriously, it was worlds away from the constant bombardments of Facebook and its silly updates from "friends" and holiday greetings from "our family to yours", and far from the braggadocio of Instagram where everyone is #nofilter handsome/beautiful, dressed in their logomania attires, and living their best lives.

Just last week on LinkedIn, I saw about 15 people putting certificates of courses they just finished. I congratulate them wholeheartedly, but a closer inspection of the names of the courses and - worse - the governing bodies issuing them, leaves me cold. There were also about four copy/paste versions of the same story about the guy in shoddy surroundings who got interviewed by an HR (but he got the job, yay, because "don't judge the book by its cover"), three other identical stories about companies hiring someone with no experience but who ended up getting promoted twice (twice!), about two other people promoting conspiracy theories (one about the deep state in the US, another about Carlos Ghosn replacing Riad Salameh as governor of central bank in Lebanon). 

Oh and of course, there were half a dozen stories about people who opened a business and failed and opened another one later and succeeded. And a tone of the customary motivational quotes, and several from Brigette Hyacinth. And by the way, all those saying, "if you do not like your place, change it, you are not a tree" (original quote by Jim Rohn) let me remind you as an agriculture engineer, that changing the place of a tree requires moving its primary ecosystem with it to survive (which involves the soil it was planted in - or your previous working experience/rolodex for that matter).

Thankfully, there is a mute button. Or unfollow or whatever they call it.

But yes, it is alarming. All right, we all knew men were using the the platform to privately email women about non-business issues (and at times women posting such messages to fight back), but the amount of info on LinkedIn - serious, business-like, educational - was still abundant.

Lately though, I cannot but worry. If I wanted to see shiny happy people, I'd have gone to Facebook and Instagram.

Facebook #lovelocal

Facebook is inviting us to "Love Local"... The campaign is a brilliant product of today's world. Shot a la va vite most likely with phones (or professionally but made look like amateur), it highlights institutions (Hachem in Jordan, Chez Maguy in Lebanon,...) in the MENA region. See film here. I honestly love the visuals, and it seems Facebook is placing webinars to help these institutions or companies benefit by being online. Now let us face it though, would people of a certain demographic want to get back to square zero and relearn how to put their name out there? Remember the recent "Stop hate for profit" Facebook boycott campaign? Major multinationals were on board, but that made only a small dent since Facebook makes its money from small companies and individuals, not international heavy weight accounts. Now if it works or not, #lovelocal is still a campaign of lovely imagery.