It’s Saturday, and we’re at the end of a wet week and we’re getting wetter by the moment. The rivers around here are back at flood stage and we won’t see the sun until Monday when we’ll be flirting with 90°f (32°c) again. Oh well, no point complaining about the weather, right? David and I put on our ponchos and headed to the bar to enjoy the weekend and wrestle with Linda G. Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt”
“Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is ‘record.’ Use it as a noun, use it as a verb, use it any way you’d like. Have fun!”
If we were having a beer, you’d be curious about social media.
“Welcome gentlemen. It’s good to see you at your normal time. Can I assume you’re having your normal beverages?”
“I don’t know about Dan, Cheryl, but I will have a John Howell’s Special.”
“And I will have a nice cold Modelo.”
“I get those. I’d ask about food, but I’ve already seen Dan’s picture on Twitter.”
“Can I take that to mean you had breakfast with John?”
“Yes, David. And if you’re going to ask why I didn’t call you, I left for Hartford at seven am.”
“So, you ate at Allegro?”
“Yes.”
“That’s OK, I guess. At least I don’t follow you on Twitter, so I didn’t have to see those potatoes and eggs.”
“And that bacon, David. It’s the bacon that gets me. Here’s your bourbon, your snifter of seltzer and your glass of ice. Dan, here’s your beer. You know, after delivering David’s collection of glassware, ‘here’s your beer’ seems kinda lame.”
“Sorry, Cheryl. I’ll work on jazzing that up. You could always add some spiced salt to the rim.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“Cheers, Dan. I have to say, I’m surprised you’re still on Twitter. I’d have expected you to have moved onto Threads by now.”
“Now me, David. Not me. At least not yet.”
“How come?”
“I didn’t coin the phrase, ‘weird uncle effect’ but I like it.”
“I wouldn’t think you’d have any uncles still alive, Dan. Although it wouldn’t surprise me if they were weird.”
“For the record, I don’t have any uncles left. The point of the newscast where I heard that term, was that Threads grew out of Instagram, which grew out of Facebook—after they bought it—so it’s the same group of people that we already interact with.”
“Another conduit to the same circuit?”
“Exactly. And we might not want to share the things we traditionally shared on Twitter with all the people we know on Facebook.”
“Makes me wonder what you’re sharing on Twitter, Dan…”
“Nothing untoward, David. I follow him there, but he’s right. There’s a benefit, a freedom of sharing things on Twitter that you can’t get on anything from Meta.”
“Give me an example, Dan.”
“OK, I tweet about my books being available on Amazon. I link to the trailers on YouTube, and I link to some reviews.”
“How often?”
“I try to remember to do it daily, but at least three or four times a week.”
“Yeah, I don’t want to see that on Facebook. I mean, I bought your books, you can stop telling me about them.”
“That’s my point. It’s the same people. Also, it’s run by Meta.”
“You don’t like Zuckerberg, do you?”
“It’s not that. Well, it’s not him, it’s the data they collect, and the promise they’ve made but not kept.”
“What data?”
“I don’t know, but according to WIRED Magazine, there are nine categories of personal data being collected by Meta from people posting on Threads. Nine new categories of your personal data being added to the record at Meta.”
“Yikes. What’s the promise you mentioned?”
“Meta says that Threads will be ‘decentralized’ at some point. You know, broken out of the collective hive. If they ever follow through on that, I might join.”
“But you wouldn’t bring all your Instagram followers a long?”
“Certainly not that weird uncle. You boys want another round?”
“We do, Cheryl. I have a few more questions for our anti-social butterfly.”
“Are there any social media platforms that are decentralized, Dan?”
“WordPress is the most notable.”
“I see. You’re one of those people that consider blogs to be social media.”
“Only because they are, David. It’s a character flaw of mine.”
“Yes, but you’re not posting ten times a day about all the stuff going on in your life—and please, Dan, PLEASE, don’t start.”
“Not to worry. I have joined Mastodon.”
“Is that one of the Twitter alternatives?”
“Yes, and it’s decentralized.”
“So, no weird uncles?”
“No. I don’t have many followers yet, and I don’t follow many people, but I only know two of them from other platforms.”
“Well, if it will keep me from seeing more photos of your book covers, I’m all for you being there.”
“Here are your drinks, guys. Speaking of book covers, Dan. I hear there’s a new one arriving soon?”
“It’s in the studio, as it were, Cheryl. I also hear that we’re getting closer to the release of your book…”
“We are, but, you know, baby steps for now.”
“I better start saving up for those books.”
“Yeah, like Mr. Top Shelf Bourbon has to worry.”
“Ha, you slay me, Cheryl. So, Dan, if I wanted to follow you on Mastodon, how would I do that?”
“First, you need to join Mastodon. Then you need to follow me. You can do both in one easy step by following this link.”
“That sounds easy enough. And I can ignore those book fliers. Right?”
“Of course you can.”
No Facilities 
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