New social media homes
Substack and Mastodon
An explanation as to why I moved to Substack from WordPress and moving to Mastodon from Twitter …
I began my social media adventures back in 2006/7, when I started sharing posts on my Fairsnape iSite blog hosted on WordPress. In those days, before the emergence of Twitter and Facebook, email was the primary means of sharing content. And then through the groundbreaking BE2Camp program and network, (co-founded with Paul Wilkinson, Pam Broviak and Jodie Miners ) which explored the role of social media web2.0 and even Second Life in the built environment.
Then, in 2008, Twitter arrived and quickly became the go-to platform for real sharing. And it was good. For many years I have shared collaborative, sustainablility and technological innovations within the construction and designer facilities management arenas. And I like to think pioneered live tweet chats and interviews with Andrea Learned on our Sustainability Leadership Conversations series
However, over the years, I have realised that the scattergun approach of Twitter results in my messages increasingly lost in the noise and business of the platform, (as well as possibly on LinkedIn). As a result, the agency and advocacy that I hold so dearly are becoming less and less effective.
Moving to Substack provides me with a better means to add more thought, content, and insights to the world of sustainability, particularly in the realm of regenerative sustainability and exploring our kinship with nature. Along with the related areas of vital importance in today's built environment. And beyond, including fashion, food, and health, where joined-up thinking is essential in creating a nexus for a regenerative future.
I must admit that I find Substack much easier to use for composing, editing, and sharing my writing, through newsletter format that is form a community around subscribers. It is also contributing, as a serialised writing of my forthcoming following up to FutuREstorative - FutuREgenerative
My WordPress blog is still live and updated occasionally, with many subscribers transferring here.
Initially, I moved away from Twitter to Mastodon to limit any scattergun approach. However, as I have become increasingly concerned about where Twitter is heading, particularly with regards to the harmful effects of trolling and the lack of regulation, I realised that a quicker move was necessary. Trolling has the potential to cause real harm to people's anxiety and. health, including my own to some degree, as well as those close to me who are regularly subjected to vile messages.
The recent dismantling of the Twitter mental health and suicide watch panels has considerably hastened my decision to leave the platform. After 14 years of twitter, with some 10,000+ followers, and following the tweets of 5,000, I must admit it is a difficult move. However as twitter is taking a direction that my value simply do not align with - its a move I must make. During the move, my tweets, for the short term are limited to re-sharing and broadcasting events.
Therefore, Substack and Mastodon have become or are becoming my new social media homes for (regenerative) agency and advocacy.
So a big thank you to those who subscribe here and I invite you to join me and say hi on Mastodon, where I am still on a steep learning curve but am enjoying the freshness of the platform. I am @fairsnape@ecoevo.social
Other Substacks I would recommend:
Coming Home: The Human Connection Newsletter from Mike Brcic
Regenerative Conversations from Rachel Beth Egenhoefer
Upcoming Events
Safe spaces for conversation
Designing for the Climate and Biodiversity Crises ... within the divisive social and political context.
Taleen Joefsson will be joining us for Zoom Regenerative 53 from Brooklyn NYC on the 21 February (8pm UK), sharing her insights and reflecting on providing peer-to-peer knowledge exchanges / trainings around Designing for the Climate and Biodiversity Crises ... within the divisive social and political context. Plus our meet and greet spaces and great regenerative conversations.
Eco-Anxiety Climate Cafe
If you are all too aware of being alone in the ‘wounded world’ that Aldo Leopold wrote about in his seminal Sand County Almanac way back in the 1940’s, and are in Brussels or Belgium on the 1st March, then do join me and others for a Force of Nature Climate Café. This cafe in collaboration with Living Future Europe is an effort to give the necessary space, to come together, to share openly and honestly, and reflect on how we can channel eco-anxiety into real action. Registrations are open here