#MondayThoughts: Can you see the ripples?

It was sunny for about five minutes, but now it’s overcast again, and perhaps it will rain. Not snow, though, no chance of that, it’s almost 50 degrees, which is pretty warm for this time of year. No white Christmas in the Midwest, at least. It’s not my holiday, but it seems to me the…

I.L. Wolf

December 25, 2023

2–3 minutes

#amwriting, #MondayThoughts, #SocialIsolation, amwriting, musings, social media, Spoutible, twitter, writing posts

It was sunny for about five minutes, but now it’s overcast again, and perhaps it will rain.

Not snow, though, no chance of that, it’s almost 50 degrees, which is pretty warm for this time of year. No white Christmas in the Midwest, at least.

It’s not my holiday, but it seems to me the vibe is decidedly mellow this year. Or maybe that’s Spoutible, particularly.

It’s pretty fantastic, really.

What if it could grow and yet remain a source of community, of comradery, of information but never abuse? That’s the goal, of course.

But what if Christopher Bouzy and the Spoutible team manage to maintain this social media oasis they’ve created?

Can you see the ripples?

I can.

When we leave Spoutible to do the things we need to or want to in the physical world, we aren’t carrying with us the aftershocks of attacks or cruelty. Or defenses aren’t all the way notched up, we are not flinching, ready for the next problem or insult.

I can’t speak for anyone else, but when I leave Spoutible, I tend to feel fortified, refreshed. It’s like a place with a door ajar and friendly faces, always open, no matter what the rest of the world looks like.

How much would that change people, change people’s offline interactions with others?

Social media is used as a way to prime emotion, to have us on edge, because then we are susceptible to all kinds of things. Our logic and reasoning are being subsumed. We need coping mechanisms, we feel competitive or left behind, we bicker and by bickering allow people who should never have power to have power.

With Spoutible, we take all of that back. All of it.

And that’s an incredible, positive stone to throw in the ocean.

The stone will get bigger and the ripples will become waves, and I tell you this because I can see the future, at least this very vision of the future. Because unending strife takes us nowhere.

So that is it for me on this Christmas Day, I hope, if you celebrate, it is a lovely one full of joy and light and peace, and the beginning of an incredible year to come. And also if you don’t celebrate, because why not?

Buy me a cup of coffee!