The last day of February was a strange day for me. To fully participate in the Economic Blackout in the United States, I didn’t shop anyplace or go on social media. Depending on what you heard and your own feelings, some people didn’t feel the Blackout included social media. Others shopped only in locally owned locations. But overall, people opposed to what is happening nationally found ways to register their protest.

Although I stayed off all social media, including BlueSky, you should consider it. I have been there for over a year and have seen it evolve into an excellent alternative to X. Eventually, it may even become an alternative to Facebook. According to their own website: Bluesky is a social app that is designed to not be controlled by a single company. We’re creating a version of social media where it’s built by many people, and it still comes together as a cohesive, easy-to-use experience. We’ve done this by building Bluesky on the AT Protocol, an open source toolbox for building social apps that can all talk to each other.

In his Knowledge Quest Blog post, Why BlueSky: or, “So Your Favorite Social Media Site Is Owned By an Oligarch,” Steve Tetreault discusses reasons for leaving X and what BlueSky offers. These are his points along with my comments:

Departing the Troll Palace

Twitter was a great place to communicate and build your vital Professional Learning Network (PLN), but at some point you must accept what has happened over the past few months. We are known by the company we keep. Are you comfortable in being in Musk’s company? Tetreault notes when BlueSky opened to the public in 2024, it was limited in scope and abilities. “New features have been added. And Bluesky has recently seen a massive boom in users. Millions of folks have migrated over.”

You Can’t Take BlueSky from Me

As Tetreault says, “Bluesky is free for all users. And it is decentralized, which means it is incredibly improbable that anyone can come along and buy it to use as their own propaganda machine.” For me, these two are crucial benefits to me. I felt I could no longer be a part of an online community that spewed hatred and was opposed to the underlying principles of democracy. As a school librarian, I am committed to Intellectual Freedom and free speech. BlueSky appears, so far, to agree with this.

A Big Drawback

As noted earlier, BlueSky is still evolving and has some limitations. Unfortunately, as of yet, you can’t set your messages to “Private.” This may change in the future. Some people are concerned about that. Tetreault does point out that it is easy to block people and do so extensively. “It effectively erases any connection between you and the blocked user in the digital space. Once blocked, they won’t see your posts, not even if they quote you. Additionally, Bluesky allows you to remove any mentions of yourself from conversations, as well as your quotes from other users’ posts.” You can see someone’s blocked list, but if I block them, I don’t care if they know.

Moderation

This is one of BlueSky’s strong points. It’s easy to report problem posts and those who harass. Trolls who first went to BlueSky when they learned of people moving to it kept getting “reported, blocked and removed.” Eventually they left.

A Big Draw

The interface feels like the old Twitter. There were many features BlueSky didn’t have at first but in the last few months they’ve added the ability to post images, GIFs, and supports link embedding and video uploads. Most of what was available on Twitter is now at BlueSky. And I completely agree with Tetreault, part of the fun is watching it grow and being an early adopter. The team there is continually making upgrades.

No Algorithms

Love it or hate it, being without can be very freeing. Instead of having the site decide what you say, you make selections such as School Librarians and School Libraries feeds. You can also check your Following and Popular with Friends.

A Growing Community

Tetreault recommends BlueSky’s newest feature, Starter Packs. These help you make and share lists of users who have something in common. Try the ones for School Librarians and soon you’ll be connected to new folks with similar goals and challenges.

If you are as repulsed as I am by Musk and his minions, consider making your move to BlueSky. It’s kind of exciting being part of this growing online community.