Mike McHargue @mike@robot.rodeo

Here's my #introduction:

I'm one of the many #Twitter refugees jumping into the Fediverse today. I'm a bestselling #author, #writer, and media consultant.

Looking to connect with others about #gaming #media #storytelling #accessibility #advocacy #disability and #lgbtqia matters.

And just generally connect with interesting people. I loved Twitter in 2007, and looking for a similar vibe.

Gosh, it's great to know this post will never "go viral."

I have quite a few friends stuck in the mental health antagonistic loop of trying to effect social change using Twitter and Meta properties.

I wish I could convince them to take a break. But, alas, we must each come to that realization on our own.

I haven't been suicidal in months. I feel happy, content, and optimistic, but without losing awareness of all the challenges in our future and suffering in the present.

It turns out medicating bipolar and leaving corporate social media were essential steps in becoming well. I don't think I've ever been this stable, for this long, in my life.

107º outside. Have mercy.

It anything is by partisan in the USA, it's that politicians don't have to follow the same rules everyone else does.

Politicians and candidates in the USA should be subject to the same anti-spam regulations that companies and nonprofits follow. It's obnoxious how broadly my email address is shared into new campaigns for candidates in different states.

it should be illegal, but the fox is in charge of the henhouse here.

Leaving the major social media platforms taught me how much I used those platforms to deal with loneliness. Now that I can't get pseudosocial interactions with semi-strangers, I am much more likely to reach out to my friends for connection.

Mastodon, to its credit, does not encourage the same behavioral loop, likely because of its decentralization and lack of algorithmic timeline curation.

I still make creative projects for a living. I just abandoned the "influencer" thing. If I ever write a book again, it would be basically impossible to get it published.

Which is ok. Even good.

I also deleted my email list, so I officially no longer have a "platform." It took years, but I have 100% de-platformed myself now.

I often visit my old Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter profile URLs just to smile that they don't exist anymore.

I finally deleted my dormant Twitter and Instagram accounts. It felt better than I thought it would (and I expected it to feel great).

The last few years have really made clear to me the evolutionary head start that viruses and microbial life have over primates. Intelligence is overrated, at least in terms of fitness. Rapid genomic adaptation consistently turn animals best survival features into transmission vectors.

This is a planet of microbes, and we are among their many domesticated species.

Not me forgetting any form of social media exists. 🤣

Your friends on the autism spectrum think of you more often than you can imagine. We may not be the best at reaching out, but we are fascinated to the point of near obsession with the people we care about.

Bipolar (a haiku)

nitroglycerin:
powerful and unstable
much like my feelings.

I feel validated in my choice to leave the birdsite completely. Musk looks to take everything I didn't like about Twitter and make it a larger part of the experience.

Hopefully the Fediverse can figure out how to be a welcoming and useful platform for the marginalized advocates who did so much to make Twitter useful in the first place.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/05/elon-musk-would-let-trump-back-on-twitter-says-ban-was-morally-wrong/