I had a revelation this morning about how I am going to use social media going forward. I am just going to post content that my soul tells me will be of the highest good until they kick me off. Because , I’m starting to think something fishy is going on.
Coming Out of the Shadows
Several people told me that they thought I was getting “shadow banned” because they weren’t seeing my content anymore. I had never heard of the term. But, I looked it up and found that according to Google, shadow ban means to “block (a user) from a social media site or online forum without their knowledge, typically by making their posts and comments no longer visible to other users.”
I didn’t believe it at first because, who am I to get shadow banned? But then I noticed that on all of the platforms I’m on except Substack, which I am new to, my engagement was getting lower and lower. At first I thought it was just because I can be annoying with my rants and a lot of my stuff qualifies as TLDR-too long didn’t read. So, I could see why-only the most committed people would choose to slog through it all. But then I noticed that some posts seemed to disappear altogether.
Still, I didn’t want to be all conspiracy theory-ish. So, I told myself that if something was happening, it was probably not so much nefarious as it was my kind of content just isn’t conducive to clicks which is what they want. My stuff is sit on the toilet to hide kind of long sometimes. And definitely not good for status quo business and selling crap. All I sell is ideas that point towards spiritual and mental liberation. You know, boring shit. At worst, I figured that I might use words that the algorithms don’t like.
However, after I posted a video on TikTok being critical of the fake “merit system”–that even W. Edwards Deming, the Father of Quality and author of much of Japan’s recovery miracle flat out rejected–and tying it to MEdiocRITy, I knew something was up. I am still new to TikTok and don’t have a big following. But, usually my videos get an average of 100+ views, which in TikTok world is nothing. But this video I made called “Mediocrity as a Spiritual Practice” sat at 0 views for two days. Now that was unusual. So, I decided to try an experiment. I deleted the video. Then I re-uploaded it with the title “The Virtues of Not Living Up to Your Potential”. And while, it didn’t go viral–it didn’t even get a sniffle–it did jump from 0 to just under 100 “views” in an hour. I found that interesting.
The Art of Misdirection
It then made me think about when someone told me that they believed that my two songs on Spotify, New Me and Take This Life, got miscategorized as video game music instead of hip-hop, it was because my lyrics were intentionally trying to tap in to people’s consciousness. I also doubted that. But the person said that “they”–whoever “they” is–don’t like people saying things like:
“Wake up! Here’s the lie
Someone said that we gon’ die
Got us slavin’ wondering why
That is something we don’t buy”
or
“We that power
In that final hour
Illusions We devour
Death itself we make it cower”
Is it possible that these folks who are saying I am shadow banned are right? I honestly don’t know. I know what I write about and that for the most part, everything I commit to putting out here is emerging from a pre and post system consciousness that Jesus called being “in the world, but not of it”. I’ve been rolling like that since the first time kids told me to go back to Mexico because of my name, teachers gave me lower grades because I am Black, and I got punched in the face because people said I “talked White” when I just talked like my mom and grandmother. I was forged in the fires of not giving an eff about being accepted by the world because I wouldn’t have survived otherwise. This world has never for one day felt like home and I wouldn’t even vacation here or stop here for a rocket fuel fill up if was literally from another planet and passing through the solar system. But, since I’m here…
Writing to Stay Awake
I write the stuff I want to hear that reminds me that a lot of these folks are just playing us. I write so I won’t fall asleep. And if what I write wakes some other folks up along the way then woopty doo. Whether I’m shadow banned or not, I am just going to keep writing regardless of who reads it because it is my way of keeping myself accountable to consciousness. Hell, sometimes I think I write such long stuff simply because it’s a deterrent for people who don’t like thinking too much. That way I get the benefit of writing without the consequence of some people’s opinions. I’m probably subconsciously communicating, “If I wanted your opinion, this would be a meme.”
At any rate, I still doubt that I am shadow banned. If I was worth shadow banning for what I put out here, then it is a freaking miracle of cosmic proportions that Kendrick Lamar was able to do that half-time show. But hey, a lot of money was made off that performance. I skipped the game. But, even I tuned in for the halftime show. So maybe “they” just shadow ban folks barely anybody has heard of because we don’t have an economic impact yet. LOL. Who knows? All this being said, here is my social media plan going forward.
A Strategy-less Strategy
I am totally off of X and deleted my account because Musk is a horrible human being. I won’t even open links that go to X no matter what they are about. I have been on TikTok long enough to see why it is such a threat to the hypocrites. It basically comes down to the fact that, at least as far as what I see, there is an incredible amount of information up there that promotes critical thinking. There’s also a good amount of debate that makes it pretty clear who has done their homework and who just says stuff because either they think it makes them sound intelligent, they are just grifters, or they think that they will be kept safe by the numbers.
NEWSFLASH!!! The numbers will never keep any of us safe long term because of death. Safety in numbers is always a temporary fix.
As far as Facebook is concerned, I was going to leave Facebook because Zuckerberg is just an approval seeking algorithm in a meat suit who will just go with whatever his programming tells him to do and his site really is an emotional and psychological drag. But, the good thing about Zuck being a robot is that he will always just do what the code tells him to do. And we are the programmers.
Yes, there is a lot of junk on Facebook that has his circuits on the fritz. But, if enough of us flooded the space with positive and transformative content that helps us wake up to the reality of our individual and collective power, he would probably be forced to reboot. And when he does, there may be a chance that Facebook could get back to its original potential. At the end of the day, they are simply communication tools that are as valuable or detrimental to society as the conversations they are facilitating. Same for the other Meta platforms. And who knows, maybe on the other end he may even become a real boy.
I’m also on Black-owned Fanbase and hope that one day enough folks come over so that it is seen as a viable alternative to what’s out here. I definitely recommend joining Fanbase if you are ready to be done with X. And I’m not going over to BlueSky as long as Fanbase is an option because I’d rather support a Black alternative that is still in the process of developing because of DEI. HAHAHA
Linkedin is a whole other category. My teenager says that even though you can do as many things on Linkedin as you can on other platforms, it still isn’t really social media because it has a defined purpose of being related to the world of work. She’s smart.
And finally there is Substack where most of my TLDR content is going now. No one knows me on Substack unless they chose to follow a link from something I cross-posted. So far, this seems like the best platform for my current and emergent style. I am enjoying it. Every new person whose content I have come across is extremely thoughtful and even if I got stuck in a scroll, it wouldn’t be a doom scroll like Facebook and Xwitter or a time zap like IG or Youtube. But, it doesn’t totally replace them either.
While Xwitter is dead to me, as I said before, I feel like going on Facebook makes me feel like Harriet Tubman coming back to the plantation to get folks that were left behind. But, now I want to add to that idea notion that while Zuck-bot 2000 might get paid because of this platform, in the grand scheme, it belongs to those of us who put content up here. If all of us leave, it’s dead. We give it breath and life. Therefore we can command what it becomes. If we give in to despair, it becomes a tool that communicates despair. If we become joyous, it becomes a tool that communicates joy. If we wake up, it becomes a tool of awakening. I have decided to to make it the latter. So if you follow me, that’s what you’re going to get. If I am shadow banned, then well you won’t even know I said this. But, I will know. And because I am allergic to blatant hypocrisy and cowardice, wherever I am and whatever I say, I will show up with my eyes open and my mouth ready to speak the truth about power.
Let’s Speak the Truth About Power
If this wasn’t TLDR for you, you can follow my Substack.
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