It's a New Day
What's New and What's Coming Next
Hello friends—
I know it’s been a minute since I’ve posted here, but rest assured: more writing is coming soon! This Summer, I’ve been dealing with some personal and family issues that have required my attention, but this Newsletter is always on my mind.
I wanted to let you all know that we have some ongoing offerings— including free ones!— that may be of interest to you.
First, I launched a YouTube channel earlier this year. In addition to long form videos a few times a week, we have recently added a new series called The Daily Dose of Hope, where every weekday I’m posting a short five minute video on a daily topic related to optimism, inspiration, motivation and change.
Today’s topic is The Company We Keep. Head on over to YouTube to check it out, and don’t forget to hit SUBSCRIBE and the bell icon to make sure you’re getting new vids Monday through Friday.
Second, we’ve added some brilliant new offerings this Spring to our lineup of programs on how to cope with change in challenging times. Particularly, our new signature program 90 Days to Overcome Overwhelm, which you can start at any time, is now available on demand.
Third, for those of you who have been missing me on Twitter, I wanted to let you all know that I have recently joined Threads, a new app owned by Instagram launched just three days ago, where I am verified and posting non-stop along with tens of millions of former Twitter followers. Download the app from the App Store, and then follow me here.
(Yes, there is a discussion to be had about leaping from one billionaire owned, data scraping platform to another. Yes, I will be happy to have that discussion at a later date. However, after seven months exploring platforms like Post, Spoutible, CounterSocial, BlueSky, and Mastodon, I am finding Threads to be the most user friendly and most clearly aligned as a successor to Twitter. Right now, Threads is delightfully chaotic, and I haven’t been trolled or harassed once since joining.)
And please rest assured that new longform writing is coming soon! After a brutal late spring and early summer, I will be posting here regularly again soon. Thank you as always for your support and your readership.
Much love,
ECM
For the first time ever this morning, I've deleted a comment here concerning a post. This one related to Facebook, and the ownership of Threads and Instagram, and my prior well-known position that everyone should leave Facebook, which I stand by completely.
So, for the record:
There are VERY active conversations happening on Threads about Adam Mosseri's leadership of Threads, Zuckerberg's history, and long-standing issues with Facebook. No less than AOC, who was essentially an instant joiner to Threads, has participated in this discussion, and it is ongoing. We do not yet know how this will play out.
Threads is affirmatively not Facebook and is not being managed as such. I will not return to Facebook, ever, given its amplification of far right media and disinformation as a part of its algorithm.
For those who haven't joined Threads, there are no bots there, and the algorithm is one long firehose feed of posts. It is exceedingly left-leaning in bent right now-- Moms For Liberty was basically run off the platform yesterday-- with very prominent LGBTQ+ and BIPOC participation across the board. 50 million people have joined Threads since Wednesday, including pretty much all of my go-tos for analysis, politics and activism.
I am adopting a wait and see attitude on Threads given Adam Mosseri's leadership, and his active and ongoing responses to questions there, and will continue to do so. Also, I never left Instagram despite leaving Facebook entirely almost four years ago. I have curated Instagram very differently than I ever used Facebook, have never struggled with harassment, bots/trolls or disinformation there, and thankfully that curation has carried over quite pleasantly to Threads.
As a result of all of this, I'm going to ask you to not attack me in the comments here concerning my participation in Threads. There is a lot of curiosity about how Threads is going to shake out, and the outcome is unknown. We all have decisions to make about our participation. For some of us, those decisions are not just personal but also business related.
I look forward to ongoing discussion on this topic. That said, as always, I will not make room in the comments of my own newsletter or my own feeds for personal attacks. Thanks for the understanding.
I am very happy to see you return. I took your advice and worked hard on a local issue last year; a group of wealthy folks tried to transform a public right of way with rails and a planned trail (partly underway) to a trail only, pulling out the rails. We defeated their plan with a 67% vote in favor of the rail plus trail. I'm looking to support a candidate in the district in which the leader of the take-over is running for re-election; she is wonderful. Your insistence that action relieves some of the political anxiety and that said action is best done local is spot on. Good luck in your continuing endeavors.