Why not Facebook or Instagram

It has been declared a beach day. When we have guests, this means the guests and Cindy go to the beach, sitting in the sun or snorkeling, and I sit in the shade somewhere on dry land. I have explained my distaste for sand and salt water in a previous post. I thought I could at least provide a view of Cindy's favorite snorkeling beach. This is where she takes the pictures that have appeared on her Facebook page and sometimes here. It is a little difficult escaping the shore because the lava is tough to walk on. There is not really a sandy access to the water. Cindy has figured out her own route that is not a straight line into the water, but gets her to a place where she can swim instead of walk. If you double click on the image above, you should get a panoramic view of the beach. As you can see, it clouded up and is not ideal day for underwater photography.

I have no idea if this question has ever occurred to you or not, but you may have wondered why you are reading my travel comments on Blogger and not Facebook or Instagram, Most folks got here because I had explained on Facebook that this is where I would be posting. In several ways Facebook would have been easier for both you and me and Instagram is designed purposefully for images and associated text. 

I purposefully ddifferentiate where I post my content. I have content for educators on pages and blogs available from server space I rent (https://learningaloud.com). I do write on Facebook, but now only post political commentary on Facebook. You are reading my comments on Bogger which is now a property of Google. 

Facebook and Instagram, a photo-oriented now owned by Facebook, collect a great deal of personal information about users. This includes both those who post and those who view. Facebook also provides a biased perspective to users in that content most likely to be valued by a given user is what is prioritized for their feed. You don't necessarily see what your friends post, you see what you history of likes and shares and comments suggest you find most interesting. I object both to the collection and sharing of personal information and to the sharing/sale of this information to others. I cannot completely ignore Facebook because is where most users spend their time. I can control what content I post and view on the site so that I do not provide Facebook a complete picture of my perspective on the world. I prioritize my political content for my time on Facebook, because I want Facebook to label me as associated with this content. 

[credit - C Grabe]