First Post?

I mean… this isn’t my first blog post. I don’t remember when I made my first blog post. Way back in the before times, no doubt. So, why this post? Why a blog? Isn’t a blog kinda retro, at this point in Internet history?

Well, I’ll answer one of those questions: why a blog?

If you have been paying attention to the what the big players in the social media business have been up to, then you should also understand that posting opinions on any social media platform can be fraught with danger. Make no mistake: when you post an opinion, or reply to someone else’s opinion, on one of the major social media platforms you do not “own” that opinion. As part of the “Agreement” that you are forced to sign when you create an account on a social media platform, you give away your exclusive rights to that content. So every word you write and every image or video you post becomes the property of the social media platform.

“What would a social media platform want with the stuff that I post?” That’s a great question. There is no single answer, but something I have been hearing a lot about over the last year or so has to do with “artificial intelligence” (AI). Every AI system needs data to train on, and social media platforms have become rich deposits of all kinds of content. How do you think a system like ChatGPT can respond to your prompt to “Write me an introductory blog post”?

So, why the blog? To own my written content. Simple as that.

Now, I am under no delusions that my content is “safe” here. But it is safer than it would be on a typical social media platform. If someone steals what I write here, I can make a much better case against those who steal it than if I the content in question was just a social media post.

In future posts, I’ll introduce myself, little by slowly. But I’m glad you’ve read this far, and I hope you’ll read some more of my stuff.