Blue Sky
Hillman Marsh Conservation Area, Leamington, Ontario
Blue sky imagery has long been used in folklore and literature to symbolise optimism and hope.
Social media in my life has always been the big three - Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. For the most part, I’ve enjoyed their services. I’ve loved connecting with family, friends both old and new and with all the photography groups I love. I’ve enjoyed following my favourite news outlets and reporters. It was satisfying and fun and informative. Until it wasn’t.
For a long time now, my displeasure with these platforms has been growing. I’ve been appalled at the rapidly ballooning number of posts containing hate speech. Posts that appear on my feed without following the authors. The platforms seem intent upon amplifying racism, Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, misogyny and xenophobia. Prejudices used to increase an already rapidly rising intolerance of “other”. Worse, even, is that X and Meta — ostensibly in the pursuit of free speech — eliminated their fact-checkers. Their platforms now feature (promote?) ever so much more fake news than actual, credible news, an issue that became increasingly apparent during the US election. Then I began to realize that their algorithms are collecting my data in the background - even when I had logged off their platforms. Finally I admitted the sad truth that these social media giants had become an unpleasant and unhealthy environment — for me at least. Apparently for many others too.
Slowly, unconsciously at first, I began drifting away, signing on with less frequency until ultimately I decamped entirely. On 25th January, I closed my accounts permanently. That might have been the end of my social media life, but…
In November, and encouraged by a raft of my favourite photographic creatives who were already there, I joined Bluesky, billed as a kinder, gentler, more inclusive social platform. It is! And I’ve found a welcoming and supportive on-line community, free from algorithmic babble and insanity. On Bluesky, it is easy to feel and witness that optimism and hope, synonymous with blue sky imagery.
The day before she'd died, the three of them were in the hospital room, and her grandmother had said, "What I wouldn't give for one more June day”… And the weather would be warm, not hot.
Big cloud, blue sky weather.*
Leaving the big three behind and then joining Bluesky were two of the best decisions I’ve made. When I log in at Bluesky I get that sweet, cosy, big cloud, blue sky weather feeling. I am home.
’Til next time, y’all…
Kingsville, Ontario
*Megan Giddings, page 5, Part 1, Chapter 1 in her beautiful novel Lakewood.