These are my proving grounds. Here is where I test content before presenting to a wider audience.
Blogs still exist as a thing, but large social media sites come equipped with audience out of the box. The owner of a blog must seek their own audience, often by using other social media outlets as advertising platforms. That brings up the question of what value a blog can have under these conditions where large social media sites dominate social networks.
Consider that social media sites have an incentive to decrease engagement with rival social media sites. That is in opposition to the interest of individual human beings to control their own social networks. I, R. Brasher want to own my connections. I want to control my relationships with other human beings. If I allow another human being or an organization to control my network and my relationships, then I am yielding control of my personal life. To grant anyone else the right to control my network is to yield my personal right to associate.
My friendships must be my own friendships. My family is not the property of the state or large corporations or any other group than my family itself. If I do not have the right to change my professional connections, then I do not have control of my career or my employment, and that would make me close to being a slave.
On the other hand, I cannot disregard the power of existing large social networks controlled by social media platforms. Not to use that power would be as limiting as allowing a particular social media platform to own my network outright.
Hence, it seems urgent to develop a practical strategy for dealing with social media without granting control to particular social media platforms. This blog is part of my strategy. By having this blog I can publish articles in a rough form and seek feedback from those friends interested enough to inspect my content before it is refined enough to present to a wider audience on larger platforms.
These are my proving grounds. This is the place where I show content without worrying that it will be unsuitable for strangers to view.
This is also a nexus between social media sites. While I must use those sites to promote myself and my content, it is not at all in my interest to confine my social network to those sites. Here I can guide friends and associates to join my networks in other locations, both personal and professional.