#pixelfed

Blood Moon over Olana: An art student who once sketched on this hilltop was so taken by the scene that, fifteen years later, he returned as a successful Hudson River School painter to purchase it. Frederic Edwin Church went on to build Olana, the Orientalist mansion shown here. You can tour the villa if you are ever near Catskill, New York.

My other blog, PixelSkylines, has been suspended without notice. I'm trying to get some explanations from tumblr, hoping to get it restored. I'm quite disappointed about it.

This is why while I definitely do agree social media is designed to be addictive, but the conversation beginning and ending with that misses the fact that we only use those sites because they're basically holding our social contacts hostage.

Which I get is some strong language but consistently when I talk about leaving social media this is what people cite over and over again. They captured the market share of our friends and families and we pay to get them back with our personal details and content to train their opaque AIs. Studies have shown that people would be more likely to pay for their friends and family to stop using social media than to pay to get it back - they destroy value and commodify you for the privilege.

Call me crazy but I just think our social connections are too important for a company - any company - to own.

This is why I really recommend switching to decentralized social media - Mastodon and Pixelfed are great ones to start with.