Wednesday, January 15, 2020

Why My Blog Is Leaving Most Social Media


I had hoped to finally get back to posting new crafts this week.  Being super pregnant and having been very sick with a virus-turned-infection for the past couple weeks, I've not spent much time making stuff to share on the blog or posting on social media.  Finally, this week I'm feeling better and have a little time before baby #5 arrives to do a few.  Yay, right?

So it came as quite a shock to go to do the weekly post for the Craftastic Link Party on Facebook, as I've done for 10 years now, and then get a pop-up message that all of a sudden sewcando.com "violates community standards".  Just like that, I can't link to this blog at all.  No further explanation, no way to contact Facebook.  Blocked.  


It must be some kind of error I think, so I clicked on the "if you think this doesn't go against our Community Standards, let us know" and it takes me to this, which is a generic "feedback" form that says they don't actual review your specific account...
what's the point then?


I then discovered that not only can I not post anything from sewcando.com but ANYTHING I've EVER posted from here has been wiped off my blog's Facebook page.  All the tutorials, projects, link parties, EVERYTHING.  

Any links to sewcando.com I've ever posted on my Etsy shop's Facebook page have also been removed.  If you've ever shared anything from Sew Can Do on Facebook, it's probably gone too.  To say I'm beyond shocked is an understatement.  Sew Can Do has always been a family friendly, non-controversial, non-political personal blog about a mom who crafts.  And that's what gets banned these days???  

But pages full of racy photos, profanity, R-rated memes and spam businesses are totally fine.

Because that makes sense 🙄

At most, any given week, for the past decade, I'd share the link to Craftastic Link Party post here and if I had a new tutorial on my social media.  Which lately has been more like every couple of weeks.  That's it from this site, so it's not that Sew Can Do has been spamming either.  And they're totally fine with me still posting links to other people's blogs, just not my own.  Um what??

And since Facebook owns Instagram, if you click on my bio link there, which is supposed to go here, to sewcando.com, this is what you get:


So they've removed Sew Can Do there too.

I'd already stopped using Pinterest over their censorship policies that deliberately hide pins and permanently ban accounts that don't match their social agenda viewpoint (as explained here).  So instead of being a neutral platform and let you decide for yourself, they all decide to act as editors for what they think you should see or share. It's absolute madness.  

Back when social media first came on the scene, it was a blogger's best friend.  It was a great way to connect with readers & fans, add extra photos, have personal conversations and an added sense of community beyond the blog page.  

Then it became a numbers race to prove popularity in the craft blog world.  And the platforms all started to cash in by offering paid placement while they began to limit what followers who opted in could see.  Pages you subscribed to or liked became harder to find in your feeds.  Posts I made on Facebook to the nearly 7,000 people who liked/followed Sew Can Do's page started only being seen by a fraction of them.  In the past year on average any given post I did on Facebook was only seen by about 200 people out of nearly 7,000 who had opted in.  For a personal blog that's done for fun rather than income, I'm not about to spend $20 a go to push social media posts to a few hundred more people.



I also noticed my personal feed on Facebook has shown less posts from pages I'd liked or those I'd specifically selected to see first.  Why offer user preferences if they're just ignored?

 Truthfully, with running an online fabric shop, homeschooling 3 big kids + having two little ones in diapers to contend with in a matter of weeks, I'd been wondering if I should even keep this blog going.  I barely have time to do projects, photograph them and write them up, purely for fun, so dealing with stupid, ineffective, biased social media makes me want to just walk away entirely.

All this social manipulation has made me decide I just don't care about being on them or want to waste any more time with their unreasonable ways of operating. So I'm stepping away from most social media for this blog and in my personal use.



I'm going to go back to reading other blogs & sites directly, rather than in a social media feed or from links on them.  Why give them the traffic + free content and let them market what they want to you to see, only for them to hobble you at every opportunity?  I miss the days before social media took over and started shaping what & how we looked at information.  For places that supposedly bring social interaction, I feel much less connected than when blog comments were the main way to interact online.  Maybe if more people stepped away, these platforms they wouldn't have such a strangle hold on public communication like they do now.

For now, Sew Can Do will still be on Twitter, since I haven't had issues there, but at this rate, I'm tempted to just disappear from them all entirely.  LEFT THEM TOO!


Maybe it means less people will come here, but this blog was started as a journal for my crafts & to share what I learned as I go.  Being internet famous, making $ from clicks or angling to get glanced at for mere seconds before being forgotten on a bunch of platforms is not the point for me.  And when it stops being fun and starts being only a time suck and hassle, then it's probably a sign to let things go.     
 
Update: 6 months after I posted this Facebook miraculously restored everything on my page.  No explanation, no notice, just quietly put it all back.  It was too little too late, because I've LOVED being free of them.  I walked away from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & Pinterest and haven't missed them AT ALL.  I highly recommend it to take back your time, your sanity and your freedom.  



25 comments:

  1. Don't worry, I had exactly the same problem with Facebook, but a few days later everything was as before! =) I feel with you, I was scared and angry too, why a crochet-related blog should be wrong!

    Good luck,
    Sandra

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The illogical targeting and lack of being able to even get a hold of anyone about it is what makes it so frustrating and alarming. Crafty blogs are literally one of the most non-controversial things on the internet! Someone I know has a public hobby page on there filled with inappropriate photos, but that sort of thing is considered fine. It's a world gone mad. Most social media has turned into mini dictatorships, so this blogger is defecting from them!

      Delete
  2. I totally agree with all that you say, and hope that you stick with your decision to delete that increasingly vile social media platform. (That is, don't give it the opportunity to go back to "everything was as before".) My blog has been up for over six years and I have not had one day where I've thought, why aren't I on Facebook or Instagram or [whatever].

    As a society, we need to step back from being controlled by the likes of Facebook, a mega corporate entity that will not take steps to stop the flow of false information because doing so would affect their bottom line. What most of us don't realize is that we have the power to change that, simply by leaving.

    Your final paragraph is all the explanation you need for yourself and others. Stay well, de-stress and enjoy your family. :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Rochelle and for the reminder of what's really important in this world. You're 100% right about these so-called platforms too. They only have this kind of strangle hold because users let them. The truth is they need us more than we need them.

      Delete
  3. Glad you're feeling better. I'm glad you will still be on my email!! I haven't ever been on Facebook or any other social media. I've only had a smartphone for 4 years so I'm about 10 years behind 🙂. I did get some blogs all on one site but it was tiring and difficult to mark for later use. I'd rather subscribe to emails from the blogging person. It's exciting to see the blogs I follow in my email, then I can read them and enjoy them and mark them for later. Crafting and sewing is supposed to be fun! Thank you for sharing. Enjoy your day. 🌻🎶🌅

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Angie, thank you & that is so wonderful to hear. Sometimes I feel like I'm the last person on the planet to want things to be simpler. I feel like it was more fun and less time consuming when all these in-your-face, updated every second options didn't exist.

      I also have only had a smart phone for a few years and deliberately haven't used social media or put my email on it because I don't want a phone to run my life or prevent me from living in the present.

      Delete
  4. Ouch! I hope it all goes back to normal soon and you haven't lost all of that work.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hope it'll at least be put back since that's the whole point of the page. Makes me not want to use them going forward though.

      Delete
  5. Sorry to hear about the heartbreaking issues with social media. I haven't been quite as active with my blog and social media due to care giving. I was trying to work my way towards getting it all started up again. Maybe keeping it simple is the way to go. Thank you for sharing your experience.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The blessing of it is that it does free up a lot of time that otherwise would be spent posting, scheduling and trying to keep up with the feeds. Considering how much time social media takes up, it's not really worth the effort it requires - especially when this is how they behave!

      Delete
  6. I can totally understand you. I got one of FB page deleted last year and I didn't bother to revive it. I have one page running now and posted once in a while mostly from Instagram. Social media is just a number game nowadays. Blog in the long run is much better. And yes, I do miss the old time blogging. I feel Blog is a more sincere way of networking than simply just pressing heart and thumb button or sticker comment 😄. Don't worry about social media, since I mostly read your blog from my email 😄. Take care!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm 100% in agreement with you and it's a nice boost to hear so many people still prefer reading by email & direct visiting (which is how I do it with blogs I like).

      Delete
  7. Cheryl, How frustrating! I feel for you. Not sure who makes those crazy Facebook decisions, but hopefully it will turn around as suggested by one of the earlier comments and all will be OK. Please don't ever stop your BLOG! I love it! You are appreciated.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks so much for the support - it does make you wonder about who runs all those platforms when you see what they have a problem with AND what they don't. I'm looking forward to focusing on things here and using time I used to spend on social media to make more goodies to share!

      Delete
  8. This is so crazy to hear. Sounds very random that you got blocked. It's terrible how stressed it got you but sometimes things happen for a reason. I hope this is the case for you and you find, soon, out what that reason is!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. With a new baby arriving soon, it's turning into a blessing to free up time, but it is very concerning how free speech no longer seems free in the US. Hopefully more people will realize social media isn't all that important since it's become so edited by so few and walk away from it.

      Delete
  9. I just tried to share this with some of my blogging friends through a FB group, and it wouldn't let me share. I told them to Google you because they should read this! So sorry this happened to you, but I love what you share :)

    Alexandra
    EyeLoveKnots.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yep. They blocked the url completely and even tried to get me to "update" my info@sewcando.com email to something else, saying "it was suggested by someone" and if I didn't accept/reject it, they'd automatically change it for me. It's just creepy. Thanks so much for sharing it - more people need to know just how horrible Facebook has become and how to find things they love online when social media & search engines try to hide them for no good reason.

      Delete
  10. How frustrating. While I'm sure it's cost me in revenue over the years I've stayed away from FB and the controls of many of the social media platforms over the years. It has it pluses for contacts but the control they exercise is unbelievable.

    I wish you good health and wellness as you move forward. I hope your blog continues to be a place to share your interests and not something that is a frustration of people who know little or care nothing about your purpose.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks so much for the support. I know since I left Pinterest last year it's cut into my views here and for my fabric shop, but just looking the other way when they're becoming hyper censors to anything and everything only means it will get worse. They only do it because people let them!

      Delete
  11. I just left Facebook and Twitter. I will probably leave Instagram and pinterest in the next week or two. It's a 'freeing feeling' especially with what these so-called big social media are doing to people all over the country. I am so fed up!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It really is. Life was a lot better and less manipulated before they were around. The more people that step away from them, the more free life feels. Go for it!

      Delete
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Getting your comments brightens my day. I'd love if you left one:)

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