Serendipity35

For more than 18 years, the social network X (which many of us still call Twitter) has dominated short message social media for almost 20 years. Many people still go there for real-time updates, breaking news, and conversations. But - and it is a big BUT - changes due to Elon Musk's management of the platform the past few years have had many users leave. 

People are concerned about the lack of content moderation, reduced privacy protections, and subscription-based features (like paid verification). The general gripe is that it is an ugly space full of hate and misinformation. Users have sought out alternatives to X, and that meant there was a new user demand to be filled by other entrepreneurs. 

Alternatives range from decentralized options like Mastodon to community-driven spaces like Bluesky. I have several clients who wanted to move off X to "something else" and asked me for advice over the past year. Friends have said to me, "You're still on Twitter? Why?" 

The alternative most often mentioned is Bluesky. Interestingly, it was founded by Twitter co-creator Jack Dorsey. Bluesky initially began in 2019 as a project within Twitter to develop an open social protocol that would allow multiple apps to operate seamlessly. It was spun off as an independent entity in 2021. Its claim and appeal is that it offers algorithmic transparency and user control, enabling individuals to tailor their social media experience.

Is Bluesky a return to a gentler, saner social-media experience? It does feel like the Twitter of a decade ago. It's not the 2017 Twitter that was full of political Trump and anti-Trump pollution.

Recently, I created an account just to see what it's all about. It looks like Twitter. It even has a winged blue logo (a butterfly instead of a bird) and a character limit on posts. I am cautiously proceeding, following only a few. I have already read complaints that it has "MAGA trolls" and complaints by those accounts that they have been blocked. Is it liberal-left? The most followed account belongs to Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC). 

Cory Doctorow coined the term “enshittification” to describe how social-media companies make changes that benefit them, but gradually, and almost inevitably, the user experience degrades. I suspect that more than just the user experience degrades.The content degrades. 

Facebook and X have both been criticized of late for burying some news by deprioritizing links to articles. Instagram and Pinterest have been filling my feeds with some crazy, irrelevant AI-generated content. Sometimes my Instagram feed is 75% ads and people I don't follow. Where are the things and people I selected to follow?

What are the other alternatives in the microblogging world of social media?

Threads is Meta’s entry into the space. It's their "Twitter-killer," but Twitter survives. It allows users to post text updates, images, and videos, engage with hashtags, and interact through likes, comments, and reposts. While Threads functions as a standalone app, it is seamlessly integrated with Instagram, allowing users to sign up easily and access it through a tab within the Instagram app. It also encourages you to share your Instagram posts to Threads with a click. I use both, and I do sometimes share, but that seems repetitive. Still, my "audience" in Threads may be different from Instagram, though there is some overlap. Meta integration led to a staggering 100 million sign-ups within its first week, as Instagram users checked out this new social network. Threads' ad-free interface, clean design, and connection to Instagram’s ecosystem make it appealing, and so far, it is not as polluted as X. It is the text option paired with Instagram's visual option. A good idea for Meta.

I also added the Substack platform this year. It offers writers, journalists, and creators a space for short-form updates and community engagement. It is more blogging than microblogging, and some people write quite long pieces. It offers the option of having free or paid subscribers. Like Medium, that leads to the frustration of clicking on an interesting title and hitting the paywall. Substack Notes is their complement to the subscription-based model. Notes allows users to post microblogs, share snippets of their work, restack content they enjoy, and tag others to spark conversations.

On the plus side, Substack Notes focuses on more meaningful content rather than algorithm-driven visibility. As of now, it seems to be prioritizing quality over reach. Public by default, Notes appear in the feeds of followers and subscribers, allowing creators to build relationships while promoting their work. Though it lacks advanced interactivity or paywall options for full posts, Substack Notes is ideal for content-focused users seeking an integrated platform for sharing ideas and monetizing their audience.

I am feeling old because I am still using LinkedIn and Tumblr. 

For professionals seeking a viable Twitter replacement, LinkedIn stands out as the one social media platform that seems "professional" and is tailored for networking, career growth, and industry engagement. Unlike microblogging platforms like X, LinkedIn emphasizes professional connections, enabling users to share updates, articles, and career insights in a format similar to tweets but with a focus on meaningful business discussions. As a social network, LinkedIn excels at fostering connections through its intuitive "connect" feature, where users can expand their network by engaging with mutual contacts and industry leaders. With its robust job postings, company pages, and professional tools, LinkedIn offers a structured alternative to platforms like Mastodon, Reddit, or Threads for those prioritizing career-focused interactions over casual content. 

Though Tumblr is quite a different platform from X, it offers far more creative ways to share ideas and connect with others online. It combines blogging with an emphasis on visual storytelling (like Instagram) and allows users to post quite long text updates, images, GIFs, videos, and links. This separates it from most of the others. It really is a micro- or mini-blog platform. 

Unlike the fast-paced, real-time interactions of X, you won't get the "news" here. Tumblr focuses on creativity and individuality, with customizable themes. What you may get is a lot of celebrity photos and nudity, even though they tried (unsuccessfully) to purge that content a few years ago. 

I was able to visit Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West home-studio complex a few years ago. It was started back in the early 1940s, but evolved over many decades.

The version you see in the Architectural Digest video below probably won't change very much now. It is quite different from the original design Wright and his apprentices initially built over their first six years of life and work in the Arizona desert. It went through a good number of changes after Wright himself stopped visiting in his final year, 1959.

Tour guides point out that Wright may not have "approved" of all the expansions, modifications, and renovations made by Wright's "disciples," though they say they were made in keeping with his vision.

Taliesin West may be "purer Wright" than some other more famous Wright buildings because it was not created for a client. No one was telling Wright what they wanted or creating deadlines. It was built with apprentice labor.

It's not the first Taliesin. The original was in Spring Green, Wisconsin. Taliesin West was a home, a studio, and most importantly, an educational institution. Wright and his students spent the winters there every year from 1935 on, though it was a completely undeveloped site at first.

The Wrights stayed at an inn, but the apprentices camped out on-site. They were building straight from plans that their teacher could have drawn up the day before. Eventually, it had plumbing and electricity, but it was still a communal architecture school.

There is also a 360 Virtual Visit online that lets you walk through and hear what you might hear on an official tour. Schools sometimes use this as a virtual field trip. There is even a bit more in this virtual visit than the tour I took in person. For example, visitors aren't allowed in the Blue Loggia because foot traffic would damage the irreplaceable Chinese rug, so they never see the balcony above or the rug up close.

Recently, my laptop crashed, and I had to return to an old one that had been sitting on a shelf for a few years. It had Windows 8 from back in 2012. No updates available, and lots of websites and tools did not work. The laptop that crashed has Windows 10 and that will fade away from support in October 2025.

It got me thinking about the now 50-year history of Microsoft.

The company was at the top early on, then went through some tough years and is again near the top. It has been the first or second most valuable business on Earth for the better part of five years.

Microsoft is betting on AI to carry it into the next generation of computing. However, Microsoft's most enduring legacies may be the marks it left on society long ago via Windows. It's not a point of pride for the company or many of its users that much of our world still relies on aged, sometimes obsolete Windows software and computers. This ghost software is still being used, though it is somewhat crippled.

Here are all the versions of Windows so far:
Windows 1.0: November 20, 1985.
Windows 2.0: December 9, 1987.
Windows 3.0: May 22, 1990.
Windows 95: August 24, 1995.
Windows 98: June 25, 1998.
Windows ME (Millennium Edition): September 14, 2000.
Windows 2000: February 17, 2000.
Windows XP: October 25, 2001.
Windows Vista: January 30, 2007.
Windows 7: July 22, 2009 (released to manufacturing), October 22, 2009 (generally available).
Windows 8: October 26, 2012.
Windows 8.1: February 13, 2013.
What happened to Windows 9? (see below)
Windows 10: July 29, 2015.
Windows 11: October 5, 2021.

According to an article on bbc.com, many people and services still use outdated Windows versions.

"Many ATMs still operate on legacy Windows systems, including Windows XP and even Windows NT," which launched in 1993, says Elvis Montiero, an ATM field technician based in Newark, New Jersey. "The challenge with upgrading these machines lies in the high costs associated with hardware compatibility, regulatory compliance, and the need to rewrite proprietary ATM software."

What happened to Windows 9? 

120 years ago, divers discovered a shipwreck off the island of Antikythera in Greece. What they found changed our understanding of human history, and the mysterious Antikythera Mechanism has captured the imagination of archaeologists, mathematicians, and scientists ever since.

The Antikythera Mechanism (c. 50 BCE) was found in a shipwreck off the coast of the island of Antikythera and is now in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens.

It even inspired the plot for the 2023 film Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. The ancient Greek device was used to track celestial movements. In the fictionalized film version, it is called the Archimedes Dial and is said to locate fissures in time. The real Antikythera Mechanism was more of an early astronomical calculator. Not surprisingly, the movie takes creative liberties, turning the artifact into a tool for time travel rather than its historical function of predicting eclipses and tracking planetary positions

Using the latest 3D x-ray and modelling technology, experts are still unravelling the secrets of what else this machine may have been capable of calculating.

Could it be considered an early computer? Yes, it is sometimes regarded as the world’s first analog computer. Designed to predict astronomical positions, eclipses, and even track the cycle of athletic games similar to the Olympic Games. It uses a complex system of gears to model celestial movements, functioning much like a mechanical calculator.

Its sophistication was unmatched in its time, and nothing as advanced appeared again for over a thousand years.

Take a glimpse of the mechanism as it appears in this Hollywood version.

 

Originally posted at Kenneth Ronkowitz – poet, teacher, designer