In Praise of Bluesky, And Alleged Echo Chambers

...in which I discover I like frogs and salamanders

I’ve been told that Bluesky is an echo chamber, and I ought to broaden my horizons.

In case you’ve never been on the internet before: in the past few weeks, disgusted people from all walks of life have been fleeing Elon Musk’s hellsite formerly know as Twitter, and taking refuge on Bluesky’s fun and easy social media platform. Blusky is about what Twitter was before Musk wrecked it. People like Bluesky, because you can actually block trolls and the block is quite secure. There are no ads, which is refreshing. The algorithms aren’t skewed to force you to see political content you hate. It’s just a place to post your art and writing, read the news, and talk to your friends.

What an idea.

Of course, some people don’t like this. We’re being tut-tutted that we should get back on mean social media instead of staying on social media where we can talk to our friends. There are all kinds of thoughtful thinkpieces warning us of the dangers of forming an echo chamber and not keeping an open mind.

As someone who’s been having a great time on Bluesky, I can assure you: of course it’s not an echo chamber. I have broadened my horizons SIGNIFICANTLY by getting a Bluesky account. I follow all KINDS of pretty photograph accounts now. I used to only follow the art bots and some Victorian clothing bots on Twitter. But on BlueSky I ALSO follow accounts that post photos of ducks, and owls, and interesting mushrooms on tree bark, and the moon, and galaxies and nebulae. I follow accounts that post colorful salamanders and frogs, and I thought I hated amphibians until I saw the pictures. I followed an account that posts pretty pictures of church architecture in England and they followed me to see pretty Appalachian stuff. I’m always scrolling past a beautiful photo of something and clicking “follow” so I’ll see more of the photographer’s work. My feed is a SEA of beautiful new things.

And it’s not just photos! I also follow historians who study time periods I didn’t know were interesting. Sometimes I post a question I’ve always had about history, and a random credentialed historian sees it and answers me. I follow gardeners from different climates than me so I can find out about different ways of planting and growing things I’d never imagined, like cacti. I follow both liberal and more conventional Catholic authors, but also different denominations of Protestant and some Rabbis. I’m learning all kinds of things about all kinds of subjects.

Of course, that’s not what the thoughtful people meant. They meant politics.

Well, I follow a wide variety of political accounts as well. I follow people who count as leftists in the United States like AOC. I follow principled conservatives like Sarah Longwell and George Conway. Heck, I even follow Liz Cheney, though she doesn’t post to bluesky very often, and I hate Liz Cheney.

Of course, that’s not what the thoughtful people meant either. By “politics” they don’t mean “people with different honestly held beliefs about how to order society so that we do the most good and avoid the most evil, because we all agree that people are humans and we don’t want to hurt humans if we can help it.” They mean internet trolls.

They mean that I’m locking myself in an echo chamber if I don’t let people with names like FreedomPatriot7934586 and TorquemadaRespecter777 who have Vatican flags for profile pictures dogpile on me to call me a cat lady and a sodomite. I have to have the Trad Catholic dudebro follow me around and remind me that I’ll go to hell if I don’t fast from food, water, medications and intercourse 36 hours before receiving Holy Communion. That I have to constantly be aware of what violence against women the weird Evangelical “church planters” with gelled hair and “Husband, father, patriot” in their bios are fantasizing about now— not because I’m researching them specifically to warn the public, but because it will broaden my mind.

As tempting as that sounds, I don’t want my mind to be that broad.

I have absolutely no interest in wasting my time with abusive people anymore.

I want to talk about politics and science with grownups and look at interesting pictures of frogs.

Hope that helps.