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Ditching Twitter & Facebook: Part II

You’ve hate Twitter and Facebook. I hate Twitter and Facebook. Despite our exasperation with them, though, we can scarcely imagine living without them. We need reliable platforms for connection with family and friends, and we don’t know where else to go. We worry that ditching the biggest network platforms will bring social isolation.

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Don’t give up. There are multiple alternatives, one for almost every specialized need. Which one is best for you will depend on your interests and personality.

Here are a few of the more popular social media platforms:

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is geared for professionals job seekers, and others seeking work or business opportunities. It has more than 500 million users in more than 200 countries. LinkedIn defines its mission as “…connect(ing) the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful.”

Employers post job openings on LinkedIn, job seekers post curriculum vitae on it, and both use it to maintain and extend contact networks. Job seekers can review profiles of hiring managers and see if any of their existing contacts can introduce them.

Users can even post articles and share video on LinkedIn.

GAB

Perhaps you’re fed up with shadowbanning and other abuse dished out by Twitter. Maybe you’re frustrated with its 140-character limit. If this is the case, GAB may be platform you need.

GAB is what Twitter claims to be, but isn’t. GAB is a truly open platform that doesn’t censor user posts. It also allows longer posts, with a 300-character limit.

GAB does enforce a code of conduct, just as other social media do. GAB is much more specific about what it forbids, though, and doesn’t exploit vague standards as an excuse for political censorship.

Mighty Networks

Unlike Facebook, which attempts to connect people who already know each other, Mighty Networks seeks to expand user social contacts. The platform’s ‘pods’ are based on common interests. With the Mighty Networks, it’s easier to reach new people who share the same passions and concerns.

Users can join existing ‘pods’ or create their own. With a Mighty Network account, you can organize contacts by similarity, shared interests, or physical proximity. You can even earn money for building a community.

Mastodon

Mastodon is a decentralized open-source network. It allows up to 500 characters per post, so it’s better than twitter at enabling extended conversation.

Mastodon differs from other social media in that it doesn’t sell user data to advertisers. Mastodon permits no advertising, data mining, or walled gardens.

Diaspora

Diaspora bills itself “the anti-Facebook”. Like Mastodon, it is a decentralized network. Instead of holding user data on centrally located servers controlled by a giant corporation, Diaspora operates on independently controlled servers in many locations. Users own all of their data on the network.

With your Diaspora account, you don’t have to use your own name, and you control who gets to see your posts.

NextDoor

NextDoor was founded on the theory that social media have alienated us from our neighbors. Most of our Twitter and Facebook contacts live far away from us, and few of us know many of the people who live nearby.

NextDoor was designed to reintroduce you to your neighbors, and its networks are based on geographic location. NextDoor is a forum for informing users about events in their neighborhoods. The platform is useful for planning local events, warning neighbors about dangerous visitors, reporting lost and found items, and even scheduling babysitters.

Other Networks

These are a few of the more popular general interest social platforms. There are others that cater to special interests. Ello bills itself the creator’s network, “built by artists for artists”. Dogster and Catster connect pet lovers. Peanut connects mothers seeking emotional support, advice, or opportunities to vent. Wanelo is a network for avid shoppers. Vero is a photo-sharing platform.

There are other networks, such as Tumblr and Reddit, that are already well established.

If you look, you can find a suitable substitute for Twitter and Facebook.

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FORMAL SCHOOLING VS YOU: PART III

What do you hope to get out of formal schooling? More specifically, what do you hope to get from higher education? Is it a lucrative career? A well-rounded personality? The ability to converse with almost anyone about almost any topic? Acceptance in certain social circles? The chance to meet people who can help you succeed?

Whatever your goal, it’s entirely possible to meet it without spending years in a stifling classroom environment, and without piling up tens of thousands of dollars in debt.

High school students are told, over and over again, that a good career is impossible without a college degree. But is this true? Most often, the time spent in pursuit of a degree would otherwise be spent in the labor force, in travel, or in business ventures. Whether they succeed or not, these pursuits are learning opportunities. After a few years of them, assuming we’ve put forth reasonable effort, we are likely to have contacts, referrals, and experience producing products or services of real value. These traits are often valued more highly by employers than college degrees.

Even if we don’t learn much through formal schooling, the degree is a necessary credential, isn’t it? Don’t the best jobs require degrees? This may have been true for many years. When college graduates were rare, degrees may have indicated unusual merit. With millions of baccalaureates flooding the job market every year, though, the degree means less than it once did. The degree is a much less reliable signal of experience, knowledge, or effort than it once was. Many employers, therefore, are looking for other measures of career fitness. A LinkedIn profile and five minute Google search may reveals more about an applicant’s communication ability, work ethic, and commitment to completion of tasks than a degree will.

At the very least, some would say, the formal schooling environment offers effective networking. This is questionable, though. College students typically spend most of their time with people of roughly the same age. Most of the student’s acquaintances are studying the same subjects, and are doing the same things with their time. Almost nobody the student knows is active in business or the labor market. His social network is too narrow to benefit him very much. If he wants to cultivate contacts that will help him find employment, the college environment is the wrong place for it.

Whatever you hope to get from higher education, the formal school setting might not be the best place for it. If you look for them, you are likely to find other ways of meeting your goals. And these other ways are likely to cost much less- in time and money.

(To get the most out of informal learning, you need a reliable broadband connection. Talk to us. We can help.)