Algorithms polarize societies by reinforcing biases Social media uses algorithms to keep us addicted. A high count doesn’t guarantee influence, sales, or engagements. Most are bots or like-minded looking for valuation, not given at home. Engagement is what matters & is more valuable to most posters

i feel seen

Hey wait a minute, let's not judge people with 250 follower's my brother😄

No judging! It’s just a handful

Kidding, I get it. My posts are just shouting into the void anyway, could care less what happens to them but I get some do.

It was 1,400+ followers, @kevinmkruse.bsky.social Go ahead and keep silencing that dissent, professor…

And I’ve realized why small accounts are always saying people post for likes or clicks — they still have notifications on. My friends in Christ, I can’t even read my notifications most days. I’m sure as hell not counting “likes”

I like this attitude! I don't look either.

People are aiming to achieve different things with their social media accounts. My biggest nightmare on Bluesky so far was when my usual modest input of perhaps a half-dozen new followers a day suddenly shot through the ceiling. In two days, I got a thousand new followers. Here's how. Not at my...

... request, and not with my permission, one of those American Dems fan club groupings shoved me on one of their starter packs. I'm not even an American, but I guess I must have posted 'Trump is a big smelly' or something somewhere and I was thus identified as a fellow traveller. The quality...

... of interactions I was getting plummeted. Thankfully, when I realised what was happening, I managed to find the list and block the listmaker or God knows what state this account would be in now. I've been weeding out the pompom wavers ever since, in part by blocking them as they pop up, in...

... part because if I write something even vaguely intelligent they block me. But it's been laborious. I'm happy with my modest following to see that this post seems to be gaining traction with a dozen likes, to see the replies I get and what people have to say, something I couldn't do, as you...

... say, with 10x the following. If five new people follow me in a day, that's five people who've appreciated what I've written sufficiently to be bothered. 500 new followers a day only means someone is in the right starter pack or they're famous. It says nothing about them at all. As for...

... anyone who gets someone else to manage their account, well... that's so far outside the realm of why I'm even here that the platform doesn't even serve the function it serves for most of us. That, for those of us who seek interaction and feedback reasonable attuned to us is utterly pointless.

Incidentally, the irony of 'big account' syndrome is I probably get more out of those people's posts than they do. I write what I think in response, others interact with me, we have a debate. The original poster doesn't get that feedback. As with this one, too many notifications. So what's the...

... point? It's just pontification, and Great Thoughts worthy of that aren't exactly suited to social media posts with character limitations in a handful of hundreds. Such platforms are designed for conversation.

"Liked" even though I won't be counted. 😜

Humble brag much?

Oh FFS

Maybe I’m doing it wrong, but I don’t need followers. I’m here to read posts from people I find interesting. And maybe to berate you for not posting enough pictures of Sarge.

Ahhh, that’s why my replies are ignored

What's great about this place is the likes don't do shit! Nobody's paid for engagement here!

That's not necessarily true - that kind of revenue channel is pretty unique to video content creation platforms. Most people translate engaged audience into some sort of converted resource, whether that's through website hits, merch, donations, newsletter signups, subscribers, etc.

"most people"

Hey, now, they didn't say "many people, which we all know is totally different.

Most people who monetize, who are more people than you think.

hunh. that has not been my experience, probably because i almost entirely follow people, not accounts.

You follow artists, journalists, and game developers. Kevin is one of them. "People" hustle just the same and trying not to look like you're hustling is itself a hustle.

maybe i'm just the odd one out for absolutely not hustling on socials.

I mean you probably don't need to and that helps

I don't think a lot of people here ARE hustling, though. And if you get attention here, it's often not for what you do here but for what you do elsewhere. Someone attempting to primarily garner attention here will pretty quickly find it's not worth it, compared to other platforms you mentioned.

It's cos yer true blue wif clout, yer wise & keep us keen on all the things going on aye? Most of the people I follow are historians. Don't let it bother yer. Cheers.

😂😂😂 it's hectic for me and I have pretty close to exactly 1 % of your followbase.

I feel like I’m in the sweet spot for what I want out of Bluesky, and that’s with under 500 followers. Enough to converse with occasionally but not enough to make it challenging. (It also helps that I’m an actual nobody, so there’s not much “social” to develop a parasocial relationship around)

I'm with you. I don't have enough time in the day to read the people I'm most interested in, and I keep those on a separate list. To tell the truth, that list is basically all I read, and I don't look at half the people I follow. I'm content with my numbers and I rarely follow back.

Yeah, I like following only people that I know post consistently thoughtful things (even if there’s a lot of shitposting between, as long as it’s good shitposting). I also really like when I see people only following a few people follow me, because it means I’m a valuable enough voice to them.

Liking this anyway;)

You gotta be counting something, Kev.

I read this with Michael Jackson in my head and it slapped… yeah yeah! 🎵 Got to be countin’ somethin’ 🎶 youtu.be/1XMvPTFzgVU

You gotta block those goofballs with only... uh oh...

🤭😂🤭