I opened an account with Bluesky. I will use this network to complete my informative menu. I still believe in newspaper as the main dish on this menu. The newspaper prepared by professionals who select the really relevant news and try to give it all the context possible
I think I have already written it in this same journal: I have no irrepressible desire to give my opinion on everything, at any time and from anywhere. I grew up in a modest but enlightened family that considered the now dominant narcissism and exhibitionism crude. My parents recommended that I speak out what I knew and do it at the right time and with the utmost courtesy.
However, my family upbringing did not prevent me from welcoming with hope the emergence of social networks around thirty years ago. These were my last years at a newspaper that was experiencing a worrying drift towards submission to economic powers, and I believed that networks could democratize information and opinion. The local and the global. Now I’m much more skeptical.
I say this because last night I opened an account on Bluesky (@javier-valenzuela.bsky.social). I did so following the advice of trusted friends and such respectable media outlets as Tutor, The avant-garde And elDiario.es. Bluesky is said to be less noisy and less partisan than Twitter (now I’ve come to think the same thing about Musk as about his socio-politician Donald Trump: he’s a big mouth who amplifies the most sordid and eschatological aspects of humanity.
I have never been as tweety as many of my colleagues. I had more than 20,000 subscribers on this network, but I gradually lost them because I was not involved in each of the current controversies. I did not denigrate the ultra advisor who made scandalous remarks in Murcia, nor expressed my solidarity with the victims of the tsunami in an Asian country. I saw no need to add my voice to the protests on issues to which I could not bring my own knowledge or original perspective.
Even before Elon Musk bought it, I started being less active on Twitter. I saw how journalist friends made the mistake of disseminating information that they had not verified. I have always believed that the main asset of journalism is credibility and that it is better to take the time to report information rather than spreading false news. And it also saddened me that a sector of progressivism has used this network to become a cult dedicated to defaming other colleagues. You don’t change the world from the walls of urinals.
If Twitter has always been compulsive and noisy, Musk has made it a danger for people who, like me, suffer from high blood pressure. Now, I only go there two or three times a week, and what I find there is an avalanche of advertisements that don’t interest me at all and a lot of tweets from ultras that I don’t care about. never followed. Where are my friends and my references? The algorithm hides them from me, because I assume it will hide my few posts from the 16,000+ followers I still have. If you’re not a badass or an insult, Musk’s algorithm thinks you’re shit.
Anyway, at the risk of being called old, I have to say that I continued to use Facebook throughout this time, a few visits a day. On Facebook, I interact with people I have explicitly agreed to, and I can do so with as many words as I need without having to pay a subscription. There, I don’t just talk to politics junkies, I also talk about literature, cinema, travel, lifestyles and thoughts. As for Instagram, every now and then I upload a photo taken by me, and at night I see posts from the people I follow. And, I admit, I have fun with kitten videos. I love these cats.
I’m not going to close my Twitter account anytime soon. I will continue to visit him as little as I do now and we will see. I’m giving Bluesky a chance to complete my informative menu. I do this without naivety, because it has been shown that social networks do not necessarily change the world in the sense of more freedom, equality and fraternity. When they gain momentum, billionaires pounce on them, eager to own and sell our data, and to impose their personal and often delusional visions of the world on us.
I wrote that I will use Bluesky to “complete” my information menu. And I still believe in newspaper as the main dish on this menu. The newspaper prepared by professionals who select the information that really interests the majority of citizens and try to give them all the context possible. The newspaper that seeks the truth hurts whoever it hurts and flees lies when it suits whoever it suits. And I tell you very clearly, if I write here, it is because I believe that your management and your staff meet these standards.
I will add that I no longer read paper newspapers. Reading on the Internet – mobile phone, tablet or laptop – allows me to access both what the editorial team prepared the day before and the latest really important news. Now, I never predicted the death of paper. I use it to read books and publish my own. I believe that the Internet will not mean the death of the printed book, just as cinema has not brought about the death of theater, opera, circus or puppets. Human beings are not that stupid: they never completely give up the things that give them pleasure.
